‘THE HOTEL CAFé PRESENTS WINTER SONGS’ (Epic)
This album of women singing for the holidays includes a handful of new songs, mostly forlorn rather than festive. Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson harmonize over piano and cellos on “Winter Song,” dubiously asking the question “Is love alive?” A cello returns as Brandi Carlile contemplates a holiday-season breakup on “The Heartache Can Wait,” while Lenka smiles through “All My Bells Are Ringing,” a deceptively perky girl-group-flavored song about loneliness. Colbie Caillat grows tearful seeing “Mistletoe,” while Meiko whisper-boasts about breaking hearts — “I’ve been a bad, a bad girl” — in “Maybe Next Year (X-Mas Song).” KT Tunstall and Alice Smith go cheerfully sultry on “Sleigh Ride” and “Silver Bells”; Fiona Apple gives “Frosty the Snowman” a nicely incongruous anxious quaver; and Priscilla Ahn breaks “Silent Night” into brief, pretty, almost abstract phrases of a cappella vocal harmony. JON PARELES
