Sony
Christmas Music, 2000

Charlotte Church surely has a beautiful voice. In Dream a Dream, a Christmas album, her voice soars like a celestial angel. Mary’s Boy Child and the title track stand out as beautiful masterpieces of this dear lass’s voice.

In fact, all the old favorite Christmas tunes, traditional and Bing Crosby-esque, are here for my listening pleasure. The gentle acoustic instruments at the back contribute to the wave-hands-in-the-air atmosphere. Lovely.

Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful she sounds, the lass just couldn’t infuse any emotion in her music at all. It’s like listening to an eerie beautiful musical box playing a tune – there is a mechanical quality about this album. Ms Church’s technique may be faultless, but I am hard-pressed to get into the winter Christmas world she is selling.

And as an aside, she thanks her father whom she is involved in a bitter lawsuit against in the CD sleeve. It leaves me a bit sad, listening to Dream a Dream. It is as if Ms Church sings, but her heart may not be in what she is doing at all. I hope she doesn’t end up another child prodigy-casualty in the hands of greedy, exploitative adults.

Hence, there is something ironic and even tragic about Charlotte Church singing in childlike innocence about snowmen and Santa Claus, when I suspect the real Charlotte Church may be far from happy. Not exactly what I want to feel for Christmas.