Tinsel and Lights

Tinsel and Lights
Studio album by Tracey Thorn
Released	29 October 2012 (2012-10-29)
Genre	Christmas
Length	37:13
Label	Strange Feeling Merge
Producer	Ewan Pearson
Tracey Thorn chronology
Love and Its Opposite (2010) Tinsel and Lights (2012) Solo: Songs and Collaborations 1982–2015 (2015)

Tinsel and Lights is a Christmas album ^[1] by British singer Tracey Thorn. It was released on 29 October 2012 ^[2] on Strange Feeling and Merge Records. It is her fourth solo studio album.

The album mostly avoids canonical Christmas songs, but instead features covers of songs by Sufjan Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Ron Sexsmith and the White Stripes as well as self-penned songs. Scritti Politti's Green Gartside features on a cover of Low's "Taking Down the Tree", as well as writing "Snow in Sun". Ben Watt, who is Thorn's husband and partner in Everything but the Girl, plays on most tracks, and their three children provide backing vocals on the track "Joy".

Tinsel and Lights entered the UK Album charts at number 94 on the 10 November 2012 ^[3]

An expanded version was released via iTunes. In addition to the original 12 tracks, it added "25th December" (originally performed by Ben Watt on EBTG's "Amplified Heart" album) as well as acoustic versions of "Joy", "River", and "Tinsel and Lights".

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	76/100 [4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Exclaim!	7/10 [5]

Tinsel and Lights received many favourable reviews around the time of its release including a review in The Guardian ^[6] and the BBC ^[2]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Joy"	Tracey Thorn	4:00
2.	"Hard Candy Christmas"	Carol Hall	3:24
3.	"Like a Snowman"	Stephin Merritt	2:38
4.	"Maybe This Christmas"	Ron Sexsmith	2:11
5.	"In the Cold, Cold Night"	Jack White	2:38
6.	"Snow"	Randy Newman	2:39
7.	"Snow in Sun"	Green Gartside	2:18
8.	"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"	Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin	3:16
9.	"Tinsel and Lights"	Tracey Thorn	3:26
10.	"River"	Joni Mitchell	3:24
11.	"Taking Down the Tree"	Alan Sparhawk, Mimi Parker, Tracey Thorn	4:10
12.	"Sister Winter"	Sufjan Stevens	4:29

Charts

Chart	Peak position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [7]	169
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [8]	58
UK Albums (OCC) [9]	94
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [10]	3
US Independent Albums (Billboard) [11]	22

References

1. Jurek, Thom. "Tinsel and Lights - Tracey Thorn". AllMusic . Retrieved 16 February 2019.
2. Wallace, Wyndham. "BBC - Music - Review of Tracey Thorn - Tinsel and Lights" . Retrieved 4 October 2015.
3. "Official Charts Company".
4. "Tinsel And Lights by Tracey Thorn". Metacritic . Retrieved 16 February 2019.
5. Edwards, Michael (30 October 2012). "Tracey Thorn Tinsel and Lights". Exclaim! . Retrieved 16 February 2019.
6. Petridis, Alexis. "Tracey Thorn: Tinsel and Lights – review". the Guardian. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
7. "Ultratop.be – Tracey Thorn – Tinsel And Lights" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
8. "Swedishcharts.com – Tracey Thorn – Tinsel And Lights". Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
9. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
10. "Tracey Thorn Chart History (Heatseekers Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
11. "Tracey Thorn Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 16 February 2019.

External links

• Tinsel and Lights at Discogs (list of releases)
• The Guardian, 25 October 2012 Alexis Petridis review
• Buzzin' Fly announcement of album