TARJA – Score For A Dark Christmas – review

TARJA – Score For A Dark Christmas – review
Edel

If you’ve met me. And you haven’t. But if you had, you’d know that it wouldn’t take long, come December time, for me to start pointing out that the best Christmas records of the last ten years have both been by Tarja Turunen. They would be “Dark Christmas” and “From Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas)”. Magnificent records. They’re vinyl regulars in the Yuletide season round my way. And they’re back.

Now, they were only released in 2017 and 2023, so why the hecking heck would you buy them again? Well, you wouldn’t. For sure, they’ve jiggled the tracks about, across 2 CDs, so they no longer follow the original running order. But still. And, of course, “Dark Christmas” has already been re-released, in 2020, with the fucking annoying “bonus content”.

So, is this the sound of Tarja fans being rinsed? Well, sort of. But. I only bought the vinyl versions originally, so missed out on lots of previous extras. So I wasn’t getting fooled into vinyl this time around. Which means I’m really here for the Blu-Ray disc. Again, there’s nothing special in terms of unreleased material, so make sure you read the content carefully, before buying.

The Blu-Ray has the rejigged albums, behind-the-scenes making-of videos, the full-length Dark Christmas movie presented in Dolby Atmos, and Tarja’s 2011 concert at Sibelius Hall with Harus, and her classical album Ave Maria En Plein Air in a 5.1 DTS HD mix. So, apart from the only watch once behind the scenes stuff and the grandly titled Dark Christmas movie (it’s the videos, lads, the videos), I’ve already got the content. Oh, and you also get the four bonus tracks from the 2020 rerelease of “Dark Christmas”. So, 300 minutes or so, playing time.

Don’t get me wrong, it sounds and looks magnificent. Tarja has been my favourite female vocalist for nearly 30 years now. Why else would I go to Leeds (fucking Leeds!) to see her opening for Within Temptation? But if you’ve got the previous CD releases, I wouldn’t bother with this cash grab. I’m also deducting several hundred stars for the graphic designer who decided that anyone who doesn’t have 20/20 vision is worthless, and that the partially sighted can go to hell. I genuinely had to get a loupe out the drawer to decipher the font. Shocking. I used to be a publications manager and if I’d been presented with this, I’d have taken them out back and soundly thrashed them.

For some reason the CD / Blu-Ray only seems to be available from the Tarja webshop, although you can get the vinyl (hah!) at the Amazon Evil Empire. But, remember, that only has the original two albums across four sides.

For completists only.