Let It Snow

Personnel: Michael Buble; John Chiodini (guitar); Randy Waldman, David Foster (keyboards); Brian Bromberg (bass); Dave Tull (drums).
After establishing himself as the 21st century Harry Connick, Jr., young vocalist Michael Buble made his recording-debut year a prolific one, by capping it off with this five-song Christmas EP, in addition to his pair of full-length releases from earlier in 2003. Like Mr. Connick (who hadn't exactly thrown in the towel himself at that point, releasing his own Christmas album a month-and-a-half earlier) Buble aims to extend the classic Frank Sinatra-style approach to pop music well beyond the life-spans of its first-generation exponents. Accordingly, he lends his smooth-as-silk voice and tasteful phrasing to evergreens (no pun intended) such as "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" and Mel Torme's immortal "Christmas Song," atop a mixture of string orchestrations and lightly jazzy backing. To prove that the clock hasn't stopped on this sort of thing, there's an original holiday tune here as well ("Grown-Up Christmas List"), pointing the way forward for Buble's brand of Yuletide crooning.