Description

Exclusive Walmart edition. Double album on clear vinyls with gatefold cover and booklet

Based in New York City, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra united a 60-piece orchestra plus chorus with the talents of Jon Oliva and Paul O’Neill (respectively the leader-keyboardist and the producer of Savatage). The group released its debut album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories, just in time for the 1996 holiday season. ‘The Christmas Attic’ followed in 1998. Yes fans of Andrew Lloyd Webber will discover he has a soul mate in Paul O’Neill, the conductor of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. A dyed-in-the-wool sentimentalist, O’Neill presents this pop-rock tale with all the glitz and glory of a Lloyd Webber Broadway show. Playing to the common themes of the season through a tale about a little angel sent to Earth to leave behind a gift, O’Neill creates a big-sounding production heavy on lead guitars and orchestral filigree. There are pieces of familiar Christmas carols and hymns and a handful of unembellished acoustic numbers to offset the brighter parts of the musical melodrama. While his singers and players are all professional sounding, O’Neill often mistakes sentiment as a grand gesture when it needs to be something less ambitious or noticeable. This disc might not be as focused or serious as Christmas Eve, but it is just as enjoyable and maybe even more consistent, thanks to Paul O’Neill’s increasingly impressive compositions and an improved musicality.

Track listing:
1. The Ghost Of Christmas Eve
2. Boughs Of Holly
3. The World That She Sees
4. Midnight Christmas Eve
5. The March Of The Kings/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
6. The Three Kings And I (What Really Happened)
7. Christmas Canon
8. Joy/Angels We Have Heard On High
9. Find Our Way Home
10. Appalachian Snowfall
11. The Music Box
12. The Snow Came Down
13. Christmas In The Air
14. Dream Child (A Christmas Dream)
15. An Angels Share
16. Music Box Blues