Recorded: 2002/2003?
Tracks: Winter Wonderland; Christmas Don’t Be Late; Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire; Silent Night; Christmas Time is Here; Little Drummer Boy
Best Track: Silent Night
Track to skip: Chestnuts…is grading because of the vocals, but it’s OK
This is not an official release, so I’ll just get that out of the way at the beginning. I received this through trading various DG live stuff and it was a nice surprise someone included. I have no idea when or where this was recorded. I’m guessing it was around 2002 or 2003 even though the title is “This Euphoric Christmas” (not my title one bit). This little 6-song “album” features Davíd on vocals, guitar and overdubbed piano. He’s significantly improved in his piano playing over the years and it’s pretty nice on here (as on Winter Wonderland and Christmas Don’t Be Late). He’s still a better guitar player and it’s not surprising that he pushes that to the forefront a little bit. I love his Spanish/classical style playing on Little Drummer Boy and especially on Silent Night. It’s really great on that one.
This is a nice album, and I like Davíd Garza playing Christmas songs since he’s pretty low key about it all. The album is definitely low-fi, so it’s literally just guitar, piano and voice with very little “production” involved. That gives it a great feeling of honesty, but I also wish the production was better. Minor complaint though. The only real issue I have with this is Davíd’s singing. He sounds fine on most of these, but as his voice is quite scratchy these days, at times it’s just kinda bad. This is especially evident on Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. The arrangement of the song is nice (and it’s one you don’t hear that often), but his voice cracks way too many times during the course of the song. It’s very irritating. The main saving grace of the song is actually a random dog barking at the end. Mr. Dog provides a nice bit of hilarity and “realness”. He really probably was recording this in his living room with the window open.
On the whole, I enjoy this and I’m glad I have it. I think Davíd’s low-key delivery works on Christmas songs and the music is especially good. Not his best stuff, nor the best Christmas stuff out there, but I like it.
Rating: 85
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