If you’re looking for the soundtrack to a multi-faith holiday season, Sharon Jones and her Brooklyn-based soul band, the Dap-Kings, have done their best to cover all possible bases: take opener 8 Days of Hanukkah, for example, on which Jones can be heard belting about dreidels over horn stabs. There are a couple of classics, too, though this version of Silent Night sounds better suited to a smoky blues bar at 1am than your nan’s front room after the turkey. When it works, it’s tight, dynamic and infectiously upbeat; when it doesn’t, as on Silver Bells, the Christmas shtick overpowers the Dap-Kings’ R&B-funk musicality and turns sticky and saccharine. Jones’ voice wails and soars throughout, reminding us all how lucky we are to have seen her survive pancreatic cancer in 2013 and join the band on 2014 album, Give the People What They Want. Corny as it may be at times, this is an album that oozes soulful cheer.
