The Darkest Night of the Year, Over the Rhine (Imaginary Apple Orchard)

Last year this Cincinnati band released its second Christmas album, Snow Angels, which we reviewed favorably. Curiosity piqued, and also because we're completists here to the extent possible, we went into the Wayback Machine (OK, it was actually iTunes) to scope out their first effort from 1996. You can hear the continuity between the two discs in terms of the folk-pop-jazz style of the music. The title is pretty much on the nose, as this is quiet and intense, again much like Low, as we said in the Snow Angels piece. Unlike the later album, there's a larger number of familiar carols in the playlist, including two versions of "Silent Night," one a midtempo poppy version, the other slower and done as a "duet" with dual voices, both of which are the same singer. The band did pen a few tunes for this effort. "Thank You My Angel" doesn't have much of a holiday theme, nor does "Amelia's Last," though thematically they serve the album title. "Mary's Waltz" uses Christmas more as a motif for the story of a blind girl who escapes her bedroom to dance. There's also a fair number of instrumentals here, including "The First Noel," "Greensleeves," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and the originals "Coal Train," "Up North Here Where the Stars..." and "A Little Lower Than the Angels."