Not So Silent Night is the eleventh studio album by German singer Sarah Connor. It was released on 18 November 2022 by Polydor Records.[1] Her second Christmas album after Christmas in My Heart (2005) and a follow-up to Herz Kraft Werke (2019), it marked Connor's first English language album since Real Love (2010).[2] A breakaway from most modern Christmas albums, the album omits cover versions of Christmas standards and carols, but instead features twelve original songs, co-written by Connor.
The album earned generally mixed reviews from music critic. It debuted at number one on the German Albums Chart, becoming Connor's third consecutive and fourth overall studio album to do so, and also entered the top ten of the charts in Austria and the top 20 in Switzerland. The release of Not So Silent Night was preceded by lead single "Ring Out the Bells." A reissue, entitled Not So Silent Night – The Cozy Edition, featuring three news songs, was released in November 2023.
On 13 November 2021, Connor released a new recording of the Robert Wells/Mel Tormé classic "The Christmas Song" and its music video as an Amazon Music original. The song, alongside "Don't You Know That It's Christmas", is included as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of the album. Connor had previously recorded and performed the song in two versions, the first one being included on her first Christmas album Christmas in My Heart in 2005, the second one being part of the Christmas show in the first season of the German TV Show Sing meinen Song – Das Tauschkonzert in 2014. On 4 November 2022, "Ring Out the Bells" was released as the album's first official single.[3]
In her review for laut.de, Kerstin Kratochwill wrote that "the perfectly polished pop" on Not So Silent Night "shines like an over-decorated Christmas tree."[4]WDR 2 critic Oliver Rustemeyer found that Not So Silent Night is "also a typical Christmas album, but it not only sounds contemplative, but also wild and at least partly rocky."[7] Enwie Kej from Der Vinylist found that "the flow and impulsiveness of the first three songs is lost on the rest of the album. Of course, the work impresses with Sarah Connor's incredible voice and with a different album title the expectations would probably have been different. This leaves a nice Christmas album."[6]mix1 noted that "the new songs vary in sound from a Motown feel to messages of peace and a countdown to the turn of the year."[5]
Not So Silent Night debuted at number one on the German Albums Chart in the week of 25 November 2022.[8] It would mark Connor's third consecutive and fourth overall studio album to do so.[8]GfK Entertainment ranked it 44th on its 2002 year-end chart.[9] In November 2023, the album re-entered the chart at number eight, following the release of Not So Silent Night – The Cozy Edition.[8]
