What If
Sat 22 December
Kate Winslet
In the beginning, there was the kid from Reading who went to stage school. At stage school, inter alia, they teach one to sing. Properly. Using the chest as well as the nose. While Kate Winslet has not displayed this particular asset in her major works - Hideous Kinky, Sense & Sensibility, Dark Season - it's always been part of the resume of any decent acter. So, when Winslet landed a vocal part in a movie version of A Christmas Carol, the record could be slotted in quite simply.
Unlike most acter-turned-singer concepts (Phillip Schofield, Nicole Kidman, Darren Day... the list is endless) this works astoundingly well. One can tell how well from the opening stanza, which is performed a capella
Here I stand alone
With this weight upon my heart
And it will not go away
From there, it's a slow introduction of guitar, percussion (but properly until after the chorus) and piano, all aimed at showing off the voice.
This isn't going to win plaudits from critics on the composition - both lyrics and melody are fairly run of the mill, and there's an almost Eurovision key change.
'Cos I tried but I had to draw the line
And still this question keeps spinning in my mind
However, there's a certain edge - perhaps a huskiness, perhaps a croak - in Winslet's voice that transcends the material and adds a certain star quality to the performance.
This is going to be confined to the Christmas bins, not from any mention of the festive season in the lyrics, but purely because it's from a movie themed round that time of year. That really causes a good song to go to waste.