Tinsel and Lights
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| Tinsel and Lights | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 29 October 2012 | |||
| Genre | Christmas | |||
| Length | 37:13 | |||
| Label |
| |||
| Producer | Ewan Pearson | |||
| Tracey Thorn chronology | ||||
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Tinsel and Lights is a Christmas album[1] by British singer Tracey Thorn. It was released on 29 October 2012[2] on Strange Feeling and Merge Records. It is her fourth solo studio album.
The album mostly avoids canonical Christmas songs, but instead features covers of songs by Sufjan Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Ron Sexsmith and the White Stripes as well as self-penned songs. Scritti Politti's Green Gartside features on a cover of Low's "Taking Down the Tree", as well as writing "Snow in Sun". Ben Watt, who is Thorn's husband and partner in Everything but the Girl, plays on most tracks, and their three children provide backing vocals on the track "Joy".
Tinsel and Lights entered the UK Album charts at number 94 on the 10 November 2012[3]
An expanded version was released via iTunes. In addition to the original 12 tracks, it added "25th December" (originally performed by Ben Watt on EBTG's "Amplified Heart" album) as well as acoustic versions of "Joy", "River", and "Tinsel and Lights".
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 76/100[4] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Consequence of Sound |  [5] |
| Exclaim! | 7/10[6] |
| The Guardian | [7] |
| musicOMH | [8] |
| Now | [9] |
| The Observer | [10] |
| Pitchfork | 6.2/10[11] |
| Q | [12] |
| Uncut | 8/10[13] |
Tinsel and Lights received many favourable reviews around the time of its release including a review in The Guardian[14] and the BBC[2]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Joy" | Tracey Thorn | 4:00 |
| 2. | "Hard Candy Christmas" | Carol Hall | 3:24 |
| 3. | "Like a Snowman" | Stephin Merritt | 2:38 |
| 4. | "Maybe This Christmas" | Ron Sexsmith | 2:11 |
| 5. | "In the Cold, Cold Night" | Jack White | 2:38 |
| 6. | "Snow" | Randy Newman | 2:39 |
| 7. | "Snow in Sun" | Green Gartside | 2:18 |
| 8. | "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" | Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin | 3:16 |
| 9. | "Tinsel and Lights" | Tracey Thorn | 3:26 |
| 10. | "River" | Joni Mitchell | 3:24 |
| 11. | "Taking Down the Tree" | Alan Sparhawk, Mimi Parker, Tracey Thorn | 4:10 |
| 12. | "Sister Winter" | Sufjan Stevens | 4:29 |
