Destiny’s Child is the latest R&B act to offer up a Christmas album tweaked for today’s urban fanbase. “Doesn’t it feel like Christmas?” the trio asks on the title track of their new holiday collection, 8 Days of Christmas. Well, it doesn’t feel like any Christmas I can recall; it sounds more like “Survivor II: Winter Ghetto-chic” (“On the 8th day of Christmas my baby gave to me/A pair of Chloe shades and a diamond belly ring”). But the urban-skewed material often works: the traditional “White Christmas” flows directly into the hip-hop-hued “Platinum Bells” without a hitch while “This Christmas” is transfigured into a hyper-futuristic Christmas ballad. Beyoncé Knowles delivers a nuanced performance of “Silent Night,” displaying an expressive vocal range rarely glimpsed among all that is Gucci-Bootylicious. The track, along with the a capella “Opera of the Bells,” features an intricate arrangement written by Destiny’s main mistress. The Christmas classic “O Holy Night” is done little justice, however, with a generic synth-laden arrangement and a rather lackluster performance by Michelle Williams.
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