In a break from the way things generally go with these remix albums, Verve Remixed Christmas's interpretations that stray far from the source material and the more faithful re-workings are on even ground here. Production duo Yesking gives Billie Holliday's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" a dubby Jamaican twist, and Brazilian Girls fuses samba grooves into Dinah Washington's more staid version of "Silent Night" (though Washington's vocals barely figure into the mix).

Producer Oh No works "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" into a looming, portentous hip-hop track. It's not surprise that it's so creative and so successful; Oh No's the son of '70s soul singer Otis Jackson and the brother of Madlib.

It's not all holiday cheer, though; The Orb's remix of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World" falls flat. It doesn't even matter that this isn't a Christmas tune—the whole enterprise feels arbitrary and trite, with Armstrong's vocals moved into the background and electronic flourishes barely relevant to the song they're augmenting.

Unlike past installment's of Verve's Remixed series, this Christmas one actually offers up some curiosities. While past disassemblements of Holiday and Nina Simone have done nothing but reduced the quality of near-flawless tunes, Verve Remixed Christmas at least has some fun with its source material. Maybe, too, since these are holiday tunes, there are less expectations, less marriage on the part of the listener to the originals. Either way, it's interesting, and surprisingly so. And keep an eye out for Verve Unmixed Christmas, a companion disc which presents the tracks in their original form.

—Chris Hassiotis
01.05.08

What makes a classic Christmas song work is that, even as we change and the world changes, it stays the same, popping up each year during the holiday season steady and sure, providing a kind of thread to holidays past, an example of perceived nostalgia at its most powerful. Messing with that emotional nostalgia is a tricky thing, which is why this set of holiday classics remixed by various producers and DJs walks a thin line between delightful surprise and what-were-they-thinking disaster. When things work here, they work surprisingly well, bringing a fresh sonic perspective to songs that might seem immutable. Ella Fitzgerald's "What Are You Doing New Years Eve" becomes a joyous cacophony in its Mangini vs. Pallin mix, while a pair of Nina Simone gems, "I Am Blessed," remixed by Wax Tailor, and "Chilly Winds," remixed by Fink, collect a haunting atmospheric power in their new versions, although it is still Simone's singing that carries things. On the other hand, the Brazilian Girls remix of Dinah Washington's version of "Silent Night" fails to take into account the song itself, which is, after all, about a kind of joyous silence, and amped up like this, it just sounds wrong. Yesking's remix of Billie Holiday's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" suffers a similar fate. It's initially interesting to hear Holiday's voice set against a reggae rhythm, but by the end of the song, it's just plain odd and disorienting to hear her presented this way. Sometimes classics are classics because that's what they are. Changing them just weakens the foundation. Still, there are some fun mixes here, and if none of them are likely to replace their original versions (which are available in a separate Verve release, by the way, and it's interesting to compare the two discs), there is still plenty of joy and good cheer in most of them. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide