Nollaig (Deluxe)

There is now a deluxe version with three bonus tracks—Joy to the World, White Christmas, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing!

They’re all recently recorded, so Eiméar is on here. She has a very interesting voice—one that actually reminds me a bit of Emma, but with a bit of a lighter tone!

I also believe Kate may be playing harp on White Christmas?

There’s a very interesting sound to this lineup…I don’t know if it’s the vocal direction or just the natural sound, but it’s a bit difficult to differentiate them…I can generally make out Muirgen, at least? Hopefully this is just my own ears adjusting to this lineup and not the mixing or whatever.

Overall, though, I enjoy the new songs, even if they’re not the style of music I’d generally gravitate towards. I’m sure that when December comes forth and Christmas is less of a marketing ploy and more of an actual impending event, I’ll appreciate this classic sound more.

I like the new arrangements, but again one voice drowns out the others a lot. Maybe it wasn’t intentional, but I like when the voices mix perfectly together.

I agree Einear sounds a little like Emma

I like the new arrangements, but again one voice drowns out the others a lot. Maybe it wasn’t intentional, but I like when the voices mix perfectly together.

I agree with that assessment. Caitríona is the biggest victim of this…it sounds as though Eiméar and Muirgen, the sopranos, swap the leading vocal while Caitríona, an alto chorally (I don’t know if she’d specifically fall under the mezzo-soprano or contralto categories? Solo classical/operatic vocal classification differs from choral vocal classification), is drowned out. It’s not the first time this has happened in CW history—I think it’s somewhat common for the lower voices to be drowned out by higher ones—but individual members were often given more spotlight in general, so we could at least tell who was which. There’s not that luxury now, and I also believe they’re harmonising for most of the songs.

I've only heard the new songs a few times. But I know what you are saying about the voices blending together. I still find it hard to pick out individual voices from some of the "original" Nollaig songs too.

It made me think of how distinctive the voices of Mairead & Eabha were together. Those albums are my favs and I still listen to them all the time.