Fabulous Music, Disappointing Presentation . . . . .
Peter A. Sferra | Sunny California | 11/19/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Every song in this collection is a gem, but the presentation was a HUGE let down. I cannot fathom why Capitol Records chose to use many of the original monophonic recordings of the 1960s material when every holiday track the Beach Boys ever did is now available in glorious stereo. A decade ago, "Ultimate Christmas" gave us superbly remastered stereo versions of everything and the previously unheard lushness only added to the band's incredibly layered vocal arrangements. Why anyone with two functioning ears would choose to hear these works of art in mono at this point is beyond me and I'm puzzled by Capitol's choice to use them. They didn't even bother to "throw the listener a bone" with some previously unreleased holiday bonus track as bait. On top of all that, the packaging leaves much to be desired. While "Ultimate Christmas" provided a beautiful booklet, "Christmas Harmonies" only included a minimal single fold sheet with little information beyond the song titles and their origins. Finally, it's pretty hard to get excited about a fifteen song Beach Boys holiday collection when their own record label once produced one with twenty-six tracks! Seems like we're going backwards on the holiday stuff. Hopefully, the band's fiftieth anniversary will prompt Capitol to show a tad more holiday cheer in December of 2011!"