Iditarod and Sharron Kraus - Yuletide
(Elsie and Jack)
This third entry in the Iditarod's annual series of Christmas presents for their fans benefits from the addition of Oxford folkie, Kraus. Her duets with Carin Wagner add a contrapuntal harmonic element that for the most part masks any of their individual vocal shortcomings, particularly on the vocal half of "Lyke Wake Dirge." As on the Providence duo's current studio effort on BlueSanct (the Ghost, the Cat, the Elf, and the Angel), Jeffrey Alexander adds lengthy, drony, avant garde interludes between tracks, initially serving as a pleasant sorbet to cleanse the aural palette, but ultimately taking on an annoying, overlong life of their own (particularly across five minutes at the start of "Wintermute.")
Sharron's crystalline solo on "Gift" has an angelic Sandy Denny-filtered-through-Judy-Collins charm about it, and coupled with Jeffrey's gently plucked acoustic backing is the album's highlight. The between-track drone presents a clean slate for Carin to paint her solo on "Winter's Spell." Sharron's clarinet accompaniment adds a medieval, wyrdfolk vibe similar to the musical interludes performed by the traveling actors in Ingmar Bergman's "Seventh Seal." Swirling, winter winds and trudging footsteps form the segue into "Wintermute," but it soon turns into experimental, fuzz guitar noodlings and becomes an exercise in "Waiting for Godot" as the listener wonders if they'll ever get to hear the song itself. It's either a classic definition of "filler" or simply an attempt to pad the EP to full-album length, but by the time "Wintermute" eventually arrives, it's practically anti-climactic. However, it's almost worth suffering through the "intro" to hear another lovely Kraus vocal.
In all, a frustrating release. The addition of Sharron Kraus would normally cause me to recommend this as one of the best in the series; however, that suggestion is sullied by some of the overlong and ultimately pointless inbetweenies. So, armed with your remote, I suggest you skip the bits between the bits and enjoy the songs themselves for about 25 minutes of cool Yule tunes that can be enjoyed at any time of the year. [This record gets a 6/12; but have your friend edit out the interludes when he burns you a copy.]
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