When word got around, earlier this year, that Brett Eldredge was recording a Christmas album, I ignored it. The nature of Christmas music is such that press and PR accounts frequently speak about every holiday platter as something brand new for at least the first three years. When the accounts confirmed that Brett was, indeed, recording what was called "Glow 2.0", I still relegated him to the "possible" portion of The List. Unless your name is Pentatonix, you simply don't release a second Christmas album only a year or two removed from the first; it just isn't done in the modern era. Finally, it's been confirmed that Brett has completed recording and a Christmas album will be coming this fall...likely in October. I still don't know what to make of it.
Now, note in Brett's quote the phrase "expand on it". In another interview, Brett calls the new project a "bigger and better" version of "Glow". So you have to wonder if this is going to be a full and all new Christmas album or simply a re-release of "Glow" with additional tracks. Yet, OTOH, if that were the case, you'd normally just call the new record "Glow (expanded edition)" or "Glow (deluxe edition)". And that would be odd since there was already an expanded edition of "Glow"--the Target exclusive which includes not one but THREE bonus tracks. Additionally, the first album did pretty well in the vinyl format last year and, while there's certainly room for additional tracks on a CD, I'm not sure how much more could be squeezed onto vinyl (I mean, you know they're gonna want to do vinyl at some point and a double LP might be a tougher sell). Then again, on the yet other hand, the original LP was about 36 minutes. If you don't include the Target exclusive tunes, you could probably fit another three tracks on the vinyl. I'm gettin' dizzy, here. There are too many "other hands."
Regardless of whether Brett's new Christmas album turns out to be all new or an expanded edition of the first (and, until I know better, I'm leaning toward the latter), it's sure to be welcome. Many have tried to recreate the sound, feel and sincerity of the big band vocal holiday albums of the Sinatra era, but only a very few succeed as well as Brett Eldredge did on "Glow". Let's hear some more, shall we?