SWV

A SPECIAL CHRISTMAS

(RCA)

After getting sidelined by their guest rappers on their most recent album, you'd think the three Sisters with Voices would take the opportunity to warm up these holiday chestnuts with all the skill and invention they posses. But whether the material is classic pop (Irving Berlin's "White Christmas"), classic R&B (Gamble & Huff's "Christmas Ain't Christmas") or just plain classic (Public Domain's "Silent Night"), the production is too slick, the singing too forceful and fancy, the attitude too blankly ingenuous. Given all the hip R&B chord changes and diva-esque glissandos, the whole thing is also oddly soulless. Like Whitney Houston's pre-Babyface work, it reduces the awesome tradition of African-American singing to a mere show of power and style, deracinating it in order to broaden its appeal. As Babyface and many others before him know, reaching out needn't necessitate that kind of condescension.

-- Franklin Soults

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