This week the top un-reviewed album is not Christmas In The Aire by Mannheim Steamroller, it is a Garth Brooks album. As I've already discussed, Garth Brooks doesn't allow his catalog on most music streaming services. I don't care enough about Garth Brooks to expend effort to listen to him, so we'll drop down to the #4 album.
I was getting a little bit worried that I would not have any Christmas music to review this year. We're just over a week away from Christmas and by this time last year I had reviewed two (1, 2) Christmas albums. And whoo boy is this some kind of Christmas music.
I wasn't previously familiar with Mannheim Steamroller, or at least if I've heard their music before, I never made the name association. Outside of deliberate parodies or joke albums (like this K9 Tunes Christmas album, which looks like it's AI generated, so it's triply bad), this is the absolute worst kind of Christmas music. It is highly electronic, uninspired, and super lame. It's the kind of music that would be played in a 1980s comedy film that takes place at a ski resort during the slapstick scenes of people falling down the mountain. Just simply horrible. Avoid this album, and I suspect everything Mannheim Steamroller has ever recorded. I'm not brave enough to find out by listening to more of their albums.
I want to mention the use of the extra "e" on "Aire." It appears that Mannheim Steamroller uses "Aire" as their virtual trademark. Many of their albums are named "Fresh Aire." I'm glad this differentiates from the better NPR Fresh Air program, but the extra "e" is still stupid. It reminds me of a local road here in Boulder I often ride on my bike, Olde Stage Road. There's a sign near the road that omitted the extra "e" (because, duh, it makes no sense) which some concerned citizen fixed in the most hilarious and cheap way possible:
