For
Wonderland
, her 2016 seasonal set,
Sarah McLachlan
takes the opposite tactic than she did for
Wintersong
, the idiosyncratic holiday album she delivered ten years earlier. That record found the Canadian singer/songwriter exploring songs that were tangentially related to the holiday season, joining
Joni Mitchell
's "River,"
Gordon Lightfoot
's "Song for a Winter's Night," and
Vince Guaraldi
's Peanuts theme "Christmas Time Is Here" with a few standards, plus her original title song.
, in contrast, is nothing but holiday favorites, split evenly between traditional carols and secular tunes. Material-wise, the only curveball here is "Huron Carol," which is a Canadian hymn, and the arrangements are hazily familiar: soft and airy, carrying a bit of Baroque atmosphere but also a fireside coziness. That sense of warmth also differentiates it from
, an album that could favor the austere, and that also makes it an ideal record for snowy December nights. It's classy and comforting, music that sets a mood and drifts into the background, the kind of Christmas album that's designed to be a holiday perennial. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine