Christmas With the Puppini Sisters

Personnel: Stephanie O'Brien (vocals, harp, ukulele, violin, piano, glockenspiel, tubular bells, sleigh bell); Marcella Puppini (vocals, ukulele, accordion, piano, glockenspiel, tubular bells, sleigh bell); Kate Mullins (vocals, glockenspiel, tubular bells, sleigh bell); Blake Wilner (guitar, slide guitar); Henrik Jensen (double bass, sleigh bell); Patrick Levett (drums, sleigh bell).
Audio Mixer: Fred DeFaye.
Recording information: The Premises Studios, London.
Photographer: Peter S. Zownir.
The Puppini Sisters (who aren't really named Puppini and aren't really sisters) take on the Christmas season with their third album, an eclectic collection touching on their neo-swing tendencies. This is a British trio (their accents slip in on the occasional syllable here and there) who may take after the Andrews Sisters overtly, but who, on the evidence of this disc, are at least as interested in George Michael and Mariah Carey as they are in Bing Crosby and Patty Andrews. So, for example, they revive the 1980s Wham! hit "Last Christmas" (much more of a hit in the U.K. than in the U.S.), a catchy if melancholy ballad, as well as Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You." But they also traipse back to the `40s and `50s for Crosby- and Crosby/Andrews-related numbers like "White Christmas" and "Mele Kalikimaka." Their jazziest reading, actually, is "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (here called simply "Let It Snow"), although their singing can't really be called jazz since the scatting and re-harmonizing clearly were worked out in advance and rehearsed, not improvised on the spot. That's the way the Andrews Sisters did it, too, of course, and the Puppini Sisters remain as much a tribute act as a revitalization of several eras of pop. ~ William Ruhlmann