Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Christmas comes but once a year, and for many that is one time too many, a season of excess, of superficiality, of overload and mental health issues as each year we forget that the point of it all is to reflect, to be thankful and look forward to the brighter days ahead. For some the abundance of good cheer perhaps masks the feeling of loneliness, of regret, the glut of merriment a shell in which we crawl to see us through dark times.
Christmas has long since lost its meaning, in its more tasteful sense at least, commercialism is the spectre in which the country has lost its value of others, and every year the sound of false bonhomie is a bell sounded in the ears of those who man the tills and pray on the minds of those who see nothing wrong with exposing themselves to debt, who believe that one day a year is actual fact a time that lasts for three months as shops start to play songs that are designed to make them forget it is only October.
To compere any number of songs that are released at this time of year, the rush to be the Christmas No 1 and the adulations that go with such memorable timing, is perhaps a falsehood in itself, nobody will ever mind Noddy Holder’s wonderful scream declaring for the thousandth time that it is Christmas, nobody will bat an eye lid as the ghosts of Christmas hits decorate the halls, and yet a truth of a song at Christmas is the one that is either haunting or sincere its own belief.
Yvonne Lyon’s I Believe In Christmas rubs shoulders with the likes of Greg Lake’s I Believe in Father Christmas, Jona Lewie’s Stop The Calvary or even The Pogues’ massive hit which entails abuse and failing fortunes, these songs speak a truth about the time of year in which we raise a glass a sing along merrily aside, perhaps forgetting, or not wishing to understand, the message they hold at the core of the song.
Everybody wants to be of good cheer, and that is perfectly natural and acceptable, yet we must never forget the cost of such revelry, as Yvonne Lyon sings with sincerity and heartfelt beauty in her voice, “We unleash our borrowed wealth“, it is a tale of sadness that in these reflected times we still find it acceptable to drive ourselves to the point of exhaustion, to surrender of humanity for the sake of working ourselves to death on Christmas Eve, to find that one last present in which we hope to make up for all the agonies of the year.
If a song can be considered a symbol of truth, then Yvonne Lyon hits the mark with stunning accuracy, a beautifully produced arrangement, a single of sincere belief, I Believe In Christmas is a message that cannot be discouraged.
Yvonne Lyon’s I Believe In Christmas is released on November 30th.
Ian D. Hall