The Puppini Sisters: Christmas With…

The Puppini Sisters: Christmas With…
There are certain bands or groups that listening to transports you to times gone by. Like listening Grovesnor transports you back to the 80s or The Darkness transported you back to the late-70s, The Puppini Sisters are that type of transportive experience. But unlike Grovesnor or The Darkness, the Puppini Sisters take you way back to bygone age before most of us were born. The Puppini Sisters specialize in close three-part harmonies combined that are mostly associated with the 1940s and acts like The Andrews Sisters and The Boswell Sisters. The Puppini Sisters apply their throwback style to the holiday season with their new album, Christmas With the Puppini Sisters.
When I think of 1940s Christmas tunes, I think of Gene Autry singing “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or Frank Sinatra singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. The Puppini Sisters play to these expectations through covers of Christmas classics like “White Christmas”. The Irving Berlin classic that was immortalized by Bing Crosby is covered in a very traditional arrangement. The instrumentation includes only guitar, bowed bass, and sparse drums. The Puppini Sisters’ voices are left to shine over the sparse arrangement.
While the album contains a myriad of Christmas classics like “Let It Snow”, “Here Comes Santa Claus”, “Winter Wonderland”, “Mele Kalikimaka” and “O Holy Night” but it is their non-traditional selections that make the album for me. Their stunning cover of Wham!‘s “Last Christmas”. The rendition is given lush instrumentation incorporating instruments like violin, glockenspiel, double bass, and cello and finally allows us to see what Wham! would have sounded like during the second World War. The Sisters also whip out great covers of non-traditionals like Mariah Carey‘s “All I Want For Christmas” and Elton John‘s “Step Into Christmas”.
Between the great harmonies, the excellent arrangements, and the mixture of new classics and old-standbys, it is hard to imagine a more complete Christmas album than Christmas With the Puppini Sisters. My only complaint is the album is too short. The Puppini Sisters’ previous albums have been 14 and 13 songs but listeners are only treated to 10 Christmas tracks. At least there is great quality if not an abundant quantity.
Rating: 9.3/10
MP3: The Puppini Sisters “Last Christmas”
Buy: iTunes