A New Thought For Christmas CD

A New Thought For Christmas - Melissa Etheridge

December 19, 2008

This is the album I needed this year. It's called "A New Thought For Christmas". It's Melissa Etheridge's first-ever Christmas CD. And it's not what you think. It's not anything like the usual retreads celebrity singers do. The cover gives you a clue: it's a peace symbol etched into an icy window pane.

There are a few familiar songs here: Blue Christmas, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Merry Christmas Baby. Except for that last one (which is darn fine), the rest of these all have to do with separation and loneliness at this time of year. One the songs written by her falls into this category too, having to do with being separated by war from one's dear one.

The rest of the songs are written by her. They are just right for right now, this year. They are about true peace on earth, about making that change within ourselves and our world, about the hope that is just around the corner.

As she says in the liner notes, "This album is my attempt to bridge our old oppressive cultural ways with the enlightenment of our coming future." She gets it about "the old ways" and the pre-Christian fears of the sun going away. She even knows that we go into THREE longest days and nights of the year. And she knows the religious overlays upon that. But this album is much more than that. It's about...well, it has to be said: "We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." I am probably putting more politics into this than is really there, because this album is ultimately about peace and love.

This album is so hopeful and so different. And it's so right for helping us step forward now. It's new and fresh and -- wow, you gotta hear it.

-- fleur