Christina Perri's second EP is a far cry from 2010’s
Ocean Way Sessions, which featured a live rendition of her breakthrough, breakup calling card “Jar of Hearts” --
Perri, a former café waitress with a golden voice, found her way into the limelight a when “Jar of Hearts” spilled over after a performance on an episode of So You Think You Can Dance. Enter 2012, and
Perri has thrown her hat into the annual yuletide blitz with the unfortunately titled
A Very Merry Perri Christmas, which pairs five holiday staples with one seasonal original, the quite lovely “Something About December.” It’s fitting that
Perri chose the
Carpenters' “Merry Christmas Darling” as one of the five, as her effortless, easy pop vocals owe a great deal to
Karen Carpenter, and her renditions of oft-abused standards like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Ave Maria” are so refreshingly austere that they almost sound groundbreaking. In fact, it's a shame that she stopped at just an EP. ~ James Christopher Monger