Midwinter Graces, Tori Amos (Universal Republic)

With Kate Bush in a state of semi-retirement, the leadership of the niche for female singer-songwriters with a penchant for both lyrical and musical drama has fallen to one Tori Amos. You've seen her previous albums, in which she creates multiple personas that she illustrates through wardrobe, wigs and makeup -- and, not incidentally, in the songs that she writes, produces and performs. For 2009, she brings this approach to a holiday album -- or, if you will, a "midwinter" album, in which she combines her originals with rearranged and augmented versions of traditional carols. The approach to the subject is similar to Sting's album, in that overt discussions of Christmas are played down in favor of her evocations of the impressions and emotions of the winter season. Love and nostalgia star in "A Silent Night With You," "Winter Carol" harkens back to pagan legends of the season, "Snow Angel" creates a celestial being out of a child's snow game, "Pink and Glitter" appears to be about a family holiday, though wrapped up in allegory and delivered as a torch song, and "Our New Year" is a more elaborate take, featuring a mixture of emotions, on the theme of "Auld Lang Syne." The Amazon edition adds two bonus cuts, "Comfort and Joy" and "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht," which inexplicably is sung in English. If you're starting to think this doesn't sound like a lot of fun, well, you'd be right -- there's not much rock 'n roll spirit on this album. Like Sting's disc, this is one artist's serious expression of her ideas of the holiday season, with only the slightest amount of whimsy to leaven it ("Pink and Glitter"). I will say there's enough substance here that Tori could build a live show around it and tour it in competition with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller at Christmas time. (Hope I'm not creating a monster here....)