Nick Lowe

If there is a winner for getting your Christmas release to reviewers the earliest, then Nick Lowe is the champion this year by quite a few weeks. Arriving in September, it must be quite disconcerting for writers to be thinking of how this festive collection will be received even before many supermarkets have finished laying out their Christmas tat.

At Music News we have waited as long as we can but now it is time to cast an ear across the first Christmas record of 2013 - and the first ever from Lowe. Apparently when he was approached by his record label about the idea, his reaction was an instant knee jerk 'No!'. But Lowe says after less a minute he thought the project could be really good fun.

Lowe says there was one main objective - apart from making it fun - and that was making the record a sleigh-bell free zone. There was also a desire to avoid some of the over glitzy feel of the modern commercial Christmas. And thankfully Lowe has succeeded on all those fronts - and made a surprisingly delicate fireside delight.

Of the newly penned songs - there is a gently little jaunt with Hooves On The Roof, written by Ron Sexsmith, the tongue in cheek Christmas At The Airport and the simple but effective I Was Born In Bethlehem - Lowe's retelling of the nativity. The latter shows off Lowe's wonderfully maturing vocal - where he sounds like an English cousin of Nat King Cole. That soothing sound helps make the album feel musically more rewarding than most festive fare.

The pick of the covers is the sleepy Christmas Can't Be Far Away - while classic like Silent Night also feature - as well as a surprising take on Wizzard's I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. If the album was one of the chocolates name-checked in the title - it could well be the green triangle. And there is no better tribute than that!