[Christmas 2010] Christmas Staples Done Right

So here we are, a few days 'till Christmas, and what do I have up my sleeve? A whole host of Christmas songs for every possible taste. I mean it this year - I've chosen a much wider range than usual, some I like, some I don't. Christmas festivities on PRN this year come in 2 parts - this first part is all about the carols, the staples everyone knows. The second part will focus on modern Christmas songs, the non-carols. Yayyyy!


I say this every year because it's true - just because the lyrics have "snow" or "santa" or "Christmas" in them, doesn't mean you can call it a Christmas song.

A Christmas song should make you feel all fuzzy inside, it should bring back memories, whatever they are, of Christmas, whenever you listen to it. If it's a contemporary Christmas song, you should get the same feeling you get when you hear carols, but at the same time hear familiar melodies and structures.

That's why this year, I'm listing down a few Christmas classics, and giving you guys an idea of which versions I like and don't like. Plus more songs to take note of, and some non-carols, but good Christmas songs nonetheless. ;D

O Come All Ye Faithful
This is my favorite Christmas song. Ever. EVERRRRRRRRRRRRR. Mainly because even if the melody is simple, there are an infinite number of things you can do and it will still sound good, it will still sound like Christmas. I like it so much, I can literally hear the perfect arrangement in my head. I have it all planned out, from how it starts, how there are gradual additions to each verse then suddenly the key changes and everything explodes. Very few versions have come kinda close, and a heck of a lot have miserably failed, so I'm still searching for that one arrangement that will blow. me. away.

Stacie Orrico (2001): Of the versions of that I've heard, this is the one I've blacklisted. Call me a purist or a biggot or whatever for not liking the Stacie Orrico-ized O Come All Ye Faithful, but I'm sorry. The rearrangement sounds more like a CCM song than a Christmas package, and the epic-ness of the song was lost - I don't care if they wanted to make it sound more contemporary, there's a way to do that and still make it sound like Christmas. This clearly does not. And all the stuff they added just made the song a big mess.


Katharine McPhee (2008): This version's fine, but I wish she would've toned down all the gymnastics. It's a beautiful song on it's own with a simple enough arrangement, no need to overreact and make it all squiggly. That and the part just before the end was just anticlimactic. This is supposed to be big, and majestic and all that - she does it pretty OK during the verses when her voice has that urgency to it, but towards the end it gets lost. Even if it's a so-called "R&B"/piano arrangement (with an orchestra-like set up towards the end), there's a way to do that. They didn't do it.


Josh Groban (2007): My only problem with his version is that it doesn't explode exactly like I'd want it to, but this one of the best versions I've found so far. The organ isn't to my taste either, but it does make it sound like a Church and in turn, like Christmas. I love the strings throughout the song, and the rest of the arrangement is really beautiful. For me the build-up was a little too sudden but it's epic-ness at the last verse is really the way I'd want it to be - majestic, huge and epic in every way possible. Using an orchestra. Just the way I want it.


Aled Jones and Libera (2008): And this, my friends, is how it is done. Not only does this guy have a gorgeous voice, Libera sound fantastic - boys really do have much brighter voices than girls, perfect for the obligato part. OH MY GOD THE OBLIGATO, someone slap me. The arrangement isn't that slow either - it has a snappiness to it. Me liking this version just shows how much of a purist I am, and proud of it. I like my Christmas songs orchestral, with a soloist and a choir and with gorgeous harmonies that resound. If this is ever turned into a more pop arrangement though, I'd trade the church organ for a sharp, and simple yet gorgeous, piano line. Other than that, everything stays as it is - ESPECIALLY THE LAST VERSE. Beautiful.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
I have a love-hate relationship with this song. If you do it right, I love it, but if you so much as screw one little detail up, I'll hate it. It can't be too fast, it can't be too sad, it can't be this and that. I have my favorite version already though, so I'm not in searching mode.

Carrie Underwood (2008): This was the version that made me adore the song - the arrangement has hints of country in it, but it feels like Christmas. Carrie sang it not only the right way with the right dynamics, but in the right key for her. That's what a lot of singers fail to get right when they sing carols in general - the key. You can't sing a song too high, nor too low - it not only has to match your voice, it has to sound comfortable to the listener's ears because they've heard a gazillion versions of songs like these. I like how the song was arranged so the last verse is somewhat like a middle 8. The instruments are very crisp to the ears - the drum line, piano line and other elements scattered around are defined, but not sharp or painful. The perfect pop arrangement, in my opinion.


Jump5 (2007): As a Jump5 song I like this - especially the start with all the pretty harmonies and all. The arrangement has kick, and the vocals are standard Jump 5 so I'm not surprised. However, as a Christmas song this is atrocious. It sounds nothing like Christmas, and it lacks life - the vocals lack dynamics. Yeah sure it has kick, but having kick doesn't mean a song has life. So it's a no.

Other Modernized Christmas Staples to take note of:

Taylor Swift - Silent Night
I do not understand how you can murder such a beautiful song and turn it into a completely different one, that doesn't even sound like Christmas. I'm open to change, but only if it's actually done well. It's like for this song, and all the others on Taylor's Christmas EP, all the life out of these gorgeous songs, everything that makes them the way they are, was sucked out. That's not Christmas music.

Mandisa - Angels We Have Heard On High
Now, this is one of the better arrangements that lean more towards to the pop side. The harmonies and the background vocals, as well as the way they tweaked the melody to fit the arrangement, although modern, still retain the "majesty" of the song, even if the arrangement isn't really epic. See? They knew which parts of the melody to play around with, but they knew which parts of the original song really had to stay.

Glee - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
It's a gorgeous arrangement, and I mean like epic in all ways possible, but I have one, rather big, problem that has kept this from going on my eternal favorites. It doesn't sound like Christmas, it sounds like an epic-ly arranged pop song. If you changed the lyrics into more "mainstream" lyrics, it would have no problem masquerading as a pop song.

*NSYNC - O Holy Night
Every self-respecting, acapella-based, talented boyband has sung this arrangement of O Holy Night, and yes, that includes DBSK. It's a timeless arrangement, really - each voice can very well stand alone with all the runs and the oohs, but together the arrangement soars. It's a boyband staple for all the right reasons, and it better continue to be one for a very long time.

DBSK - The First Noel
It's in Korean, so what? Would you rather they "bastardize" the song by singing in crooked English? Of course not. The arrangement is gorgeous - the string section sends chills down my spine, and all the other instruments are just floating along. The harmonies are beautiful, to say the least, and the execution has both grace and intensity - DBSK can obviously sing anything that's thrown at them. Changmin's solo is one of my favorites of his, ever, and Yoochun's part is perfect for him, simply put. What makes it even better is that during a time when all they did was lipsync, they performed this live. My ears are in heaven. It's one of the shorter cuts on their Christmas EP, but I personally think it's the best one - I listen to it once and all the Christmas memories start flooding in. THAT is what a Christmas song should bear - memories.

You know what I want to do in the future? Put together a post full of Filipino Christmas songs. This is not just because I'm Filipino - some of the most beautiful Christmas songs I have ever heard are Filipino. I spent a little over the first decade of my life singing these gorgeous songs during Christmas, and even if I absolutely hate performing, those songs were too beautiful to not enjoy singing. In time.

But anyway, catch part 2 within the next few days - I tackle some of my favorite modern Christmas songs.

I. AM. BACK.

And by "back" I mean back to posting about non-kpop stuff - I've put this post off for way too long now, and I'm not exactly happy with myself. *sigh* Well, I take this as my big return to blogging about American/British pop? This calls for some confetti, and a lot of comments, don't you think? Just saying.

*sigh* I've been gone for way too long to be able to write about everything, so I went and looked for a lot of newer stuff. I kinda missed this hunting for good music thing, since everything in kpop was just handed to me on a silver platter. All the more reason to rejoice being back then!

The fun starts after the cut, so hurry and click for crap's sake!


If you were with me pre-kpop and even a little post-kpop special, you'll remember that I used to do these short "new music" posts a few times a week or month - Well I'm bringing those back. I need to get my "skill" of scouring for good music back, and I'm hoping that these posts do it. Hopefully in a few weeks I write a few single reviews, maybe even album reviews - I hope I haven't lost my touch just yet! Ugh the stress. ANYWAY.

Alexandra's got a repackaged album, eh? Hmm. Start Without You has very rich production but I dunno, I'm not sold - THEN I find out it's RedOne. Oh well, there you go. Everything seems detached from everything else and Alex sounds bored. See, even she doesn't sound like she likes the song. Oh well.

I've been hearing a lot about Sky Ferreira from Ken, Jio and Kat, but I never bothered - was stuck in kpop world. I'm repenting now that I've heard One. She sounds very American, in the sense that everything's so clean (not Japanese clean though, that's like sterile or something) and the accent gives it away. Of course since I'm not head-over-heels for her yet, I can't help but think that something about her is contrived. Trust me, after seeing nothing but contrived and manufactured acts for the past few months, I know how to spot them - she looks to me like an American trying to be Brit/Euro. But this is just one song - I like the melody though, and I sense the autotune trend shifting once again. I'll give her some time, and maybe listen to 17 in a while.

Do I have to say something about the JLS single? *sigh* OK I will - it's crap, I didn't think Louis Walsh would do something that bad, but he actually did. Oh well. There you go, I said something. But seriously now, they put together the most horrid hook and possibly one of the cheapest videos of the year and they got what they wanted - an absolute disaster. I mean yeah the verses are a bit live-able and JLS have the vocals to carry themselves, but that hook was just sad.

Just listened to that Journey to the Regionals EP Glee put out recently, and there're two songs I have to talk about. If I remember clearly, I was one of those people who were crazy about Glee when I saw the pilot last year, but then lost interest when everyone starting gushing about it - the song that did it for me was their version of Don't Stop Believing on that pilot and now that I hear there's a new arrangement, I'm a little disappointed. I mean I love it that more of the cast get solos now and it's not just the two leads, but I didn't get goosebumps when I heard this. It's not the change of arrangement 'coz the instrumental's pretty much the same - it's the mix of the new production and the different vocals. And of course, the purpose, this new version is for regionals - lose the epic, replace it with show. The original one was epic and it was supposed to be just that, the damn song gave me goosebumps for crap's sake! Anyway. And then the Somewhere Over The Rainbow cover - what was that? I mean yeah they changed up the arrangement (a little too much though) and it's not your usual Simon Cowell-fueled performance oozing with cheese, but it's so cheesy in a completely different way.

I'm probably weeks (or maybe just days, it was a Sunday here when they crowned the winner) late in saying this, but Germany won Eurovision this year, and Britain was an epic fail, yet again! Yayyyy. Hahah. I'll get to listening to the British entry when I'm ready, but Satellite, the German one, was definitely good - sounds very European. The vocals, the specific sound of the "funk" or whatever, and the production sounds very familiar to me - oh gosh I really did miss this. OK enough emo-ing. It's one of those songs that grow on you, I'll admit that when I first heard it a few weeks ago I thought it was so-so, but I do love it now. It's like the instrumental's bare, but as a whole if you stop deconstructing everything and just listen, the entire thing sounds very tight and full.

Travis Garland was on AI a few weeks ago, and since Mel's a big fan, I had to watch. He wasn't that bad, but I'll admit that he wasn't perfect. The song is nice, it's got a pretty melody even if it's not he best song ever and he's got a rather unique timbre mixed with that range - I liked him when he was in NLT (mainly 'coz I liked the entire band), I still do now.

I feel like I have some kind of obligation or whatever to talk about Xtina, even if I don't. I listened to Bionic sometime last week and to be completely honest with you, I was bored to death for most of it - I miss the old Christina. Although, Lift Me Up, even if it doesn't really kick in until halfway through, is a gorgeous song - I like the contrast of the real drums and all these techno-ish things running around. Other than that, Bionic bored me. I'm sorry.

Lee Ryan put a ballad out a few weeks back - that's more like it. I mean I don't want him to be singing ballads for the rest of his career, but if Secret Love is what we get from the non-ballad side, then I'll have to go with ballads for now. I Am Who I Am reminds me of something Ronan Keating would have no problem doing, and I see A LOT of similarities between the two of them - I like Lee's voice better though. Everything about the song is gorgeous, and I'm like all over it now that I realize that.

I wanted to write about more songs, but that'll have to do for now. Was my "return" to non-kpop blogging decent at the very least? I hope it was.

Best of 2009: May #4 - #1

Kpop and Glee in the same post? Yes, be very excited.

#4: Glee - Don't Stop Believing

I, like many other people, fell trap to Glee this year. It's infectious, it's cool and dammit, the covers are brilliant. Even with all the craziness they've done this year (including a cover of Jannifer Paige's signature 90's hit Crush), this cover of Don't Stop Believing released for the pilot episode is still my favorite from the series - after I first saw it I was killing to watch the next episode but obviously I had to wait months for it. Still, I got goosebumps with the vocals on this song that dammit, there was no way I was gonna let this out of the list.

#3: Elliot Yamin - Don't Be Afraid(view my review of the album)

Need I say more? Gorgeous melody, gorgeous vocals - GORGEOUS.

#2: 2PM - I Hate You

2PM. They've been through a lot this year and even though I have my favorite on their new album, I still prefer I Hate You. It's infectious, the vocals are great and although the instrumental is a bit boring, it's a kpop hit.

#1: Industry - My Baby's Waiting

Kpop may have ruled May for me but majority of the stuff I was listening to was from years prior. After all, I had to lay down a sense of history before I started religiously listening to the new stuff - I had to know where they all came from. SO, Industry's debut take it's place as my favorite song for May. Pop brilliance.

What's been going on???

I've been super, SUPER MIA these past few days because as most of you know, I'm also a writer for a kpop news site and I had a little crisis with my grades this week (don't ask.) which all lead to me not being able to do any blogging here. That 'elements of a perfect Christmas song' might not go on as at the moment, I have no time to post anything during school days. It's hard enough trying to write one article a day over where I'm writing news, what more if I add in PRN. Apologies and I assure you, by mid-December at the latest everything will be back to normal.

So what the crap has been happening since I last did some writing? A LOT. Ugh. Here's a quick sum-up of everything I think is worth writing about. It'll be super, SUPER opinionated because over at omgkpop I have to remove all opinions and just do facts - I have to let everything out! I seriously miss being able to write like this. Hahah.

• Lady GaGa's Fame Monster was leaked and everyone freaked out. Well, almost everyone. I listened over to the album because everyone seemed to be adoring it thinking it would work like how Leona's Echo did but it didn't - I'm one of those few that thinks opposite the rest of the blogging world. (I believe I'm in this together with Paul!) I just don't find her music interesting. Yeah sure her clothes, her image and everything about her that doesn't have to do with music is a gigantic spectacle to the eyes but I don't care one bit about image - I don't like the songs, they just don't appeal to me.
• A few days ago I tweeted about Glee covering Jennifer Paige's Crush (I cannot stand people who only think Crush is by David Archuleta. PLEASE.) and although I'm not falling over my feet for the version, it's good seeing the song covered because it's so damn good! No really, as a kid I constantly heard it and a few years ago when I was re-acquainting myself with 90's pop I came across her again - brilliant song.
• Nick Jonas (credited as Nick Jonas and the Administration) has a new album slated for release and he's performing at the Grammy Nominations Concert. I should care because? Hahah.
• JoJo. There are tracks leaking almost every day and I'm sick and tired of seeing them - JUST GET THE DAMN ALBUM OUT ALREADY! Hahah.
• Is the Adam Lambert album any good? I mean, will I like it? Because I'm still debating on whether or not to spend time listening to it. Oh, and any new albums that you think are worth my time?
• There's a new Agnes track called You Rain from a repackaged version (is it the US one?) of Dance Love Pop and dammit, it's gorgeous. No really, absolutely stunning. I may have to change Agnes' entry on my year-end countdown - dammit, another round of organizing and UGH. Hahah.
• EDIT: I like the new Alicia Keys song. Hahah.
• The world of kpop has been very interesting lately. Start it off by the state of my beloved DBSK and you already have an entire roller coaster to deal with. Three of them got sued for fraud and are openly defying their talent company who also forged their signatures. They also have a Japanese single out January next year. Interesting? My article on that is here. Fans are at their toes trying to figure out what'll happen next - we thought things were gonna be OK when they released a clip of their upcoming Japanese single but apparently, they're not. Dammit.
• The big year-end awards show, The Mnet Asian Music Awards, although without SM artists (Super Junior, f(x), SNSD, 2 of DBSK) and Korea's Britney (Lee Hyori), are looking promising. No one knows for certain if this repackaging of the MKMF will work but yeah. Hahah.
• Anything else I missed that you think I should know about? I've been so out of the loop lately - apologies.

This weekend I start writing and scheduling the posts for my year-end countdown and it starts on December 1 with the rules and format of this year's countdown. Haven't compiled the November songs yet but yeah.