Lynyrd Skynyrd’s holiday album, Christmas Time Again, would make Santa say, “ho, ho, no.”
This album is the worst attempt at a Southern Christmas album. In fact, it’s so bad that it could be interpreted as a satirical Christmas album, made purely to be laughed at.
The vocals from Johnny Van Zant have their high points. But after the first 30 seconds of almost every song, the band begins to throw in out-of-place instruments and vocals that ruin every track.
This flaw is most prominent in “Santa’s Messin’ With The Kid,” “Greensleeves,” and “Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin.’ ” Each of these tracks has a shred of enjoyability – until the rest of the band joins in, giving the listener a feeling reminiscent of the Grinch’s hatred for the Who band in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Despite how lackluster and dry most of the album is, “Run Run Rudolph” at least is a pretty standout track. The southern twang in Johnny’s voice and the rest of the band playing their hearts out sounds pretty good, at least on this track.
Much more typical is the cover of “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer,” which tarnishes Rudolph’s name worse than all of the reindeer that wouldn’t let him play their games. The song combines awful, out-of-tune guitar and a weird synth that sounds like nails against a chalkboard.
