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Awesome acapella group Aug 09, 2010
Straight no chasers is a great group to listen to any time of the year. I have the holiday spirits CD but will often pop it in the CD player throughout the year just to listen to them! They put a new twist on what Acapella singing is all about!
Holiday spirits Jun 25, 2010
I love these guys I hope they continue to make new cd's the only problem was the case was cracked
LOVED IT! Jun 03, 2010
A group of talented singers singing acapella Christmas songs...I have really enjoyed this CD. It makes great background music at Christmas parties, AND it's fun to listen to year-round!
1 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Unimpressed. Mar 30, 2010
Before you get upset with me, let me say that you are totally allowed to love this group and the music they perform. There is a sold-out SNC concert soon right here in my town, and people are scalping tickets on Craigslist for prices that are shocking. Obviously there is a following for these guys.
Sorry to hop off the SNC bandwagon.
I totally understand if you've never heard good a capella before, how SNC would be an awesome experience. They put on a lively show and have fun with the crowd. This Christmas recording is in my opinion the best thing they offer.
However, having spent countless hours in the studio with similar groups, I wouldn't put SNC in the top third of them.
Many of these are groups you've never heard of, and some are shockingly better than the famous ones you have. Just check out the four no-name finalists in ABC's recent 'Sing-Off,' each of which is arguably better than this bunch. Christmas music is a natural category for a capella, and there are options out there for you.
Just one example: Order any of the Christmas offerings from The Blenders. They are all fantastic--you don't need to ask which one of the three discs is "the best." I'm pretty sure if you listen to any one of them, you'll be asking yourself what else is out there in the a capella Christmas genre, and you may even relegate SNC to the rack at Christmastime. These guys are from North Frickin' Dakota?
Try the Real Group for some European Christmas flair--a bit old school, but big on precision.
From 1972, the classic 'Singers Unlimited Christmas' is still a standard against which all others are judged, even though the mics occasionally overload and some of the production and arrangement by now seems dated. 38 years ago they were far ahead of their time and their leader, Gene Puerling, is acknowledged by many including Take 6's Mervyn Warren as the major influence in their vocal arranging.
First Call's 'Evening in December' efforts from the 1980s are also strong, although dated. There are some great arrangements in there from Nashville's David Maddux, but many forgettables as well.
And of course you have the Christmas recordings from Rockapella, which are right in the Rockapella NYC groove. They don't even swerve near that reverent 'Jesus' part of the Christmas vibe, sticking with the American secular Christmas for their stuff. If those are the tracks you gravitate to, there's a lot to like with that disc.
SNC performs a lot, which gives them a chance not just to polish their show but to perfect their harmony, pitch, intonation, ensemble singing, entrances, cuts, dynamics, diction...all the elements that combine to separate the pros from the amateurs.
They approach professional status, but they're not there yet. Too many pitch problems and lack of ensemble precision spoils this recording for me. But most of all, the feeling of a group that doesn't get out much pervades their style.
I really think this bunch would benefit greatly from extended listening sessions to the greatest in blues, rock, jazz, and funk. Their strained attempts at swing and blues are painful to watch. If they would stick to the whitebread stuff, they'd be standout in that, but they are out there trying to swing. Personally, though '12 Days' is a good arrangement and they work it with the crowd, I think the standout track on this record is 'Indiana Christmas.' This is their wheelhouse. No intonation or timing problems on this one--ensemble precision, metronome-solid timing and great pitch stability, along with a truly great arrangement, allow the boys to let their emotions in on this one. The only thing missing is a big modulation to a final key for the ending. Please, SNC, more 'Indiana Christmas,' less 'Jingle Bell Rock!' Also, SNC displays reverence when singing traditional Christmas hymns like 'Silent Night.' Their restraint in those tunes is admirable.
My complaint is, here is a group of talented singers without shoulders to stand on. Years ago, in the world of college a capella competition, a (totally whitebread) group I sang with was asked by one of the judges, "Who do you listen to?" First, no answers. Then, "Take 6," "Rockapella," "The Blenders." The judge didn't come out and say, "you all really have no idea what you're doing," but it wasn't hard to read between the lines.
Soon after, I dropped out of that group, while continuing to blow my horn in a jazz combo. If I'd spoken up that day and said, "Miles Davis, Eddie Jefferson, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane," I imagine that judge would have said, "Well, that explains your boring one-dimensional singing."
To really be good in the world SNC has chosen to inhabit requires a working knowledge of not just pop (where most of the crowd pleasing tunes come from) and jazz (where all the good chords come from) but a huge background in American blues and r & b, as well as rock and roll.
These guys, with every syllable, show their lack of depth in basic background that is a necessity when doing the kind of music they attempt to pull off.
If I were their coach, I would ask each of them to hand in their ipods to me for an in-depth loading of seminal stuff from the wide world of popular musical influences, from jazz and Delta blues to reggae, punk, disco and rock.
I'd offer prizes for those who search the internet and the musical publications for powerful influences in pop music, find recordings of these people and bring them to share.
I'd ask these guys, while they were listening, if they got any ideas for the tunes they're currently performing.
One of the things you find out from listening to seminal artists is that most of them were not polished performers, but played on the ragged edge. It was the innovative thing they were doing that sold their records and tickets, not their polish.
With SNC it's the opposite. Even though the group lacks a certain polish and precision, it is this aspect that they use to sell their work, along with that cute '12 Days of Christmas' arrangement they've gotten so much mileage out of. There's nothing to be ashamed of in being a musician that does not innovate--far more musicians are 'artisans' who play others' compositions rather than 'artists' who do their own stuff. We need the artisans, because the artists out there tend not to sing or play their instruments very well. It's rare to get an outstanding songwriter who can also do justice to his songs (Billy Joel is a rarity). It's even rarer to get an outstanding singer who can write anything but doggerel (who remembers a single word of all the self-indulgent crap Mariah Carey has written and recorded over the years?)
This is why there is a place for a group like SNC. There is great music out there looking for great (and unique) performances. SNC can do itself a world of good by standing on the shoulders of the greats that came before rather than just reading what their arranger put on the page and performing it as written. Music isn't what's on the page. Especially pop and rock. You don't see notation on a lead sheet for a jazz musician. You see the tune and the chord markings, and those supply the form. Then you go to town.
With a big band or vocal group, this obviously breaks down because large groups don't improvise together without it sounding a mess. So what you get is a studied imitation of previous innovators' improvisation, prettified and enlarged with the harmonic options a larger group gives you. Nothing wrong with that--Basie and Ellington did the same thing with their big bands. They took famous tunes out of the clubs and locked them in place with precise ensemble arrangements. The only guys improvising in those big bands were the rhythm section and the soloists. Big Band vs. small combo is a pretty good analogy of a capella group singing vs. original artists. Just as the band, though not improvising, is playing a tribute to the improvisational original, so the a capella group, constrained in its form, gives a nod to the original.
The best a capella of this type, like SNC's '12 Days,' takes the original far afield from its roots, and brings in influences from other places. The arrangement of that particular tune imports many different influences in sequence, painting a collage. It's an entertaining idea. It would be more effective (and entertaining) if SNC had more background in the styles they try to mimic.
My guess is that as this group matures, their sound will as well. It's nearly impossible to hold such a group together over the years. But if SNC stays together another ten years, I wager the recordings they put out at that time will be light years ahead of what they're doing now.
All to the good. I just don't think they're "there" yet. I believe that as each of their members begins to fall in love with the musical foundation his own art stands on, the whole group's sound will be transformed. I'm waiting for it to happen.
All Alone No frills needed Feb 20, 2010
A pure, "playing of the human instrument", with no mechanical supplements needed.
I cried when they sang "Sweet Little Jesus Boy".
A most unique addition to my Holiday CD collection.
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