Ashanti's Christmas CD

After a year filled with controversy, allegations, and investigations, Murder Inc label head Irv Gotti finished it on Ashanti's Christmas. Ashanti's voice fits sweet holiday music well, and multi-instrumentalist Demi "Doc" McGhee provides the accompaniment in total, seemingly emulating a whole orchestra with what sounds like a lone synthesizer. Ashanti contributes four new compositions with "Christmas Time Again" and "Sharing Christmas" being simple and sweet, although her "Hey Santa" reflects the season's materialistic side as she begs the big guy for a "baby blue convertible." ~ David Jeffries
What a letdown. After a year filled with controversy, allegations, and investigations, Murder Inc label head Irv Gotti finished it on Ashanti's Christmas with his least slick and least satisfying production work. Ashanti's voice fits sweet holiday music well, and she could deliver an excellent Christmas album given the chance, but it seems Gotti can't be bothered to surround her with anything worthwhile. Multi-instrumentalist Demi "Doc" McGhee provides the accompaniment in total, and the poor guy has to emulate a whole orchestra with what sounds like a lone synthesizer. McGhee's piano is hollow and synthetic, and the arrangements are uninspired. Ashanti contributes four new compositions with "Christmas Time Again" and "Sharing Christmas" being simple and sweet, but her "Hey Santa" is a materialistic embarrassment that begs the big guy for a "baby blue convertible." A drum machine that chugs on and on before someone has the good sense to turn it off takes up the last 30 seconds of the 20-minute album. It's a perfectly lifeless moment that caps off a perfectly humdrum album. According to the rumors, relations between Ashanti and Murder Inc had gone sour. Ashanti's Christmas sounds like the standard contractual obligation getaway. ~ David Jeffries
While Ashanti may be part of Irv Gotti's Murder, Inc. and famous for duets with tough guys like Ja Rule and Fat Joe, the silken-voiced singer's Christmases are clearly far from that world, as evidenced by ASHANTI'S CHRISTMAS. On her first holiday disc, Ashanti mixes up traditional tracks befitting her light-and-sweet manner and three new songs that would have fit comfortably onto a Temptations Christmas record. Producer Irv Gotti also proves himself at home in an unlikely setting, laying down a serene, spare, warm-fireplace sound for the able vocalist.
ASHANTI'S CHRISTMAS charms from the first track, the original "Christmas Time Again," a soft, melodic tune that breaks down into Ashanti's soliloquy about the first time she baked Christmas cookies, delivered without a hint of self-consciousness as if the memory just occurred to her while recording (and maybe it did). The soulful chanteuse then launches into a rendition of "The Christmas Song" in a smooth jazzy style with no unnecessary frills, letting the beauty of the song speak for itself. And so it goes throughout ASHANTI'S CHRISTMAS. The singer clearly loves this time of year and the spirit shines through.