A Pure NRG Christmas 
Artist: PureNRG
Label: Fervent/Word/Curb/Warner Brothers 
 
Love me some 'tween pop though I do, the same hyperkinetic qualities that make for fun listening on a an especially good hour of Radio Disney don't necessarily consistently translate to an effective album celebrating one of the most treasured holidays on the Christian calendar. Or, so nigh does the impossibly perky co-ed trio Pure NRG, prove on their Christmas album.

There's certainly such a thing as adding novel spins on seasonal classics. There wouldn't be such a plethora of Christmas albums every year if so many recording acts didn't believe they were doing just that. There's even merit in recontextualizing a general market song into a holiday context, as Pure NRG'sters Caroline, Carolyne and Jordan's fellow godly 'tween popstress, Cali, did with Madonna's "Holiday" on her recent Xmas EP. 

The greatest artistic transgression, of which PNRG (or really, their handlers) are guilty here, is overkill. And plenty of it. Though it's easy to concede, upping the tempo and piling on the production effects is less of a travesty on non-sacred numbers such as "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" (though what the kids do with the Jackson 5's arrangement of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" might make you pine for Michael, Marlon, Tito, et al), turning sacred carols into facsimiles of Hannah Montanna party starters is pretty well wrong on the face of it. The effect's especially noisesome as they blast the peacefulness out of "Away In A Manger" and lend an unneeded bumptuousness to "Hark The Herald Angels Sing."

But to give them, and their handlers, credit where it's deserved, their ambient techno reading of "Silent Night"  has some loveliness about it. "They ably put their own touch to "All I Want For Christmas Is You," and it sounds like they're having genuine fun on their slick mall-punk take on "The 12 Days of Christmas" (a sacred song in code, for those who know its history).

Like the first Christmas longplayer from their forebearers, Jump5, one hopes A Pure NRG Christmas is a temporary setback for an otherwise charming act.   
 
Jamie Lee Rake