Christmas with Scotty McCreery

American Idol winner Scotty McCreery has done it again with his new album, Christmas with Scotty McCreery.  He successfully creates a charming holiday atmosphere with his covers all of the classic Christmas tunes including “Let It Snow,” and “Jingle Bells” among many others.

McCreery’s voice adds a country twang to your favorite Christmas classics. He covers a wide variety of sounds while adding his very own well-loved twist to the album. The disk is perfect for anyone looking to hear the upcoming country artist over the holiday season. The only thing that could be better than spending an evening by the Christmas tree with this album is spending the entire holiday season with McCreery. Grade: A

–Rachel Cooper, WNHS-TV

This Christmas

While best known for their duets in the Broadway musical-turned-movie Grease, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John have teamed up again for a new holiday album, This Christmas. The album includes many hit holiday songs, including “Silent Night,” “White Christmas,” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

The singers voices have aged well individually, but the songs are pretty clichéd and Travolta and Newton-John add nothing particularly special to the melodies. Travolta’s Elvis imitation in “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is cheesy. He should have left the accent on the set of Grease. In many of the songs, Travolta’s voice overpowers Johns’. Perhaps if the opposite were true, this album could have been saved. Some songs do thrive when Newton-John had solo parts, but the two artists’ voices simply do not mesh well together anymore. The instrumentals are unoriginal and the “ooh’s” and “yeah’s” will make you cringe.

While there may be worse things you could do, you won’t be missing out on anything if you don’t purchase this album. It’s not the one that you want. You’d be better off with no sound other than the peaceful crackle of the fire. This Christmas can be purchased from Itunes for $9.99. Grade C+

–Maggie Gottlieb, WNHS-TV