Monophonics Frontman Kelly Finnigan Injects New Life Into Christmas Music By Crafting Fresh, Retro Styled Originals 

Kelly Finnigan | A Joyful Sound | (Colemine)
4 out of 5 stars

“Bah, humbug!” you say when faced yet again with those same tired chestnut Christmas songs drilled into your head for years if not decades? Just because some new singer gets into the December 25th spirit, slightly rearranging tunes you’ve been hearing since you were a kid, doesn’t make it any better.

Enter Kelly Finnigan to help make this year’s festivities a bit more merry and bright.

The frontman of retro soulsters Monophonics, and also a solo artist, rounded up like-minded friends from The Dap-Kings, Durand Jones & the Indicators, Devon Lamarr Organ Trio and others, to help bring these fresh originals to life. Finnigan reaches back to the 60s smoother soul of artists like Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, The Manhattans, The Stylistics, The Persuaders, The Dramatics and the Chi-Lights as he emotes over sumptuous arrangements featuring horns, strings, xylophones, and plenty of jingling bells.

These are cool, classic R&B tunes with seasonal titles like “Heartbreak for Christmas,” “Waiting on the Big Man,” “The Miracle is Here” and the simplistic but forthright “Merry Christmas to You,” the latter featuring somewhat foreboding words of “Say it from your heart/It might be the very last time/So don’t let it pass you by.”

Aside from some sleigh bells chiming in the background, there’s little particularly Christmas-y in these melodies. Most lean towards ballads but a few upbeat selections sneak through. In particular the gospel funk rocking “Santa’s Watching You” (which puts old St. Nick into stalker territory) and the toe-tapping “Just One Kiss” that has Santa “higher than the sleigh he flies” bump up the tempo and push traditional boundaries lyrically too.

Finnigan finds his groove with vocals so organically soulful you’ll think this is a great lost holiday album from the mid-60s. As producer, songwriter (he shares that credit with others) and multi-instrumentalist this is very much his show. If there is any frustration to music this wonderfully evocative of another simpler era, it’s that the album is over too quickly. At only nine short tracks (none break four minutes), along with a brief, rather schlocky prologue and postscript, the disc barely breaks a half hour.

Still, what’s here is beautifully conceived and executed. It’s just what Santa ordered to get you out of the doldrums of the clichéd fare. Later for Rudolph, Frosty and “White Christmas”; time to dig into new, mostly joyful, classics from an old soul.