AMG Review of Shushan The Palace

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

Shushan the Palace (Hymns of Earth), Jane Siberry's Christmas album, also doubles as her classical album. The recording, "originally only Christmas songs, but ultimately becoming less seasonal," as she puts it in her liner notes, finds her singing religious material composed by the likes of Handel, Bach, Mendelssohn, Holst, and others. The classical music meets her more than halfway, especially because of her own orchestrations and those of Peter Kiesewalter, which, employing a small orchestra, are not dissimilar to the style of some of Siberry's original, secular music. As a vocalist, she likes to overdub numerous parts, creating a sound that sometimes recalls vocal groups of the mid-'50s, such as the Chordettes and the McGuire Sisters. This is not the average Christmas album, but it may please the more reverent and serve as a formal, yet not stuffy, change of pace from typical seasonal fare.