Category: Gospel/hymnal

X-Claim: hallelujah

Praise God, it’s Christmas! Right? Well, that’s hallelujah. As exhortations go, that’s right up there. So let’s get serious. (Many songs hail the hell out of God, but we’re narrowing our play to Xmas tie-ins.)

Offering up a gratuitous hallelujah, We Grow Up offer the alt-rock “Office Christmas Party.” Pretty song, pretty odd song, so we’ll take this walk here.

Just as millennial, House Bat hollers out “Holiday Hallelujah.” It’s inclusive (see the Hanukkah reference at its end).

Leonard Cohen’s ubiquitous number gets the Xmas facelift with Cloverton’s “Christmas Hallelujah!” Likes it.

Doug Welborn means well, but “Hallelujah Christmas” comes off a bit clumsy. Could be country, could be blues….

.38 Special pops with an odd “Hallelujah It’s Christmas.” It is childlike in its reverence and guitar licks.

Folky bluegrass consumes The New Christy Minstrels with “Sing Hosanna, Hallelujah.” That first exclamation, btw, is a pious cry for help. Peppy!

Look Out, here come’s Dolly! “Hallelujah Holiday” is the slick corn pone you’d expect from the first lady of the big top.

“Hallelujah, It’s Christmas” gets around, but Roger Whitaker’s laid back awe and reverence is what excites me.

Leona Lewis raises from orchestral to gospel in “Your Hallelujah.” This is all about the Lord, but i’m reading boyfriend subtext here. Is that just me?

ad silentnitum, repetitive

Here we go again. Songs about Xmas to infinity and beyond.

charizma! attempts to make us blush with their BLUE ALERT “Another Very Sunny Christmas,” blasting all their problems with some comme ci comme ça rap. Seems personal. Not professional.

Mine Like Me garage rocks “Another Lonely Christmas” with more feeling. Not so much catchy, as creaky.

Winning the loss game, Rev. Oris Mays (backed by Aretha Franklin and The New Bethel Baptist Church Gospel Choir eulogize “Another Christmas Without My Son.” This is how gramps rapped, kids.

Carol Told by an Idiot, 21

The return of Christmas is reminding me of something i read in a book one time. Let them tell you.

“Let’s Have a Merry Christmas” is Mark Hand’s way of saying through somewhat dreary pop music to AGAIN give a hand to the King. Of Kings. It gets real repetitive.

Kiana Valenciano recounts the whole Jesus significance with “Once Again It’s Christmas.” this Childs version of easy listening is hard to sit still for. So kneel.

I’ll barely squeeze in the off-putting easy listening gospel annoyance of Brenda Russel and Howard Hewett with “Christmas Will Return.” They ring the rafters with song, but my ears are smartin’.

Then i should also let in Travis Cottrell’s grandparent-friendly smarmy pop “Once More.” Christianity is all about the guilt.

Jeff Stevenson and Ray Shell get all surfer pop to led you to the Lord in “It’s Almost Christmas Again.” Cowa-buon-natale!

Aaron Lindsey gets more animated with his gospelly “Christmas Time is Here Again.” Lots of instrumentation, but the R+B goes all disco–prepare ye.

Wait for Whoopsie

Even when kid songs are slickly done, they overload the smarm factor to the point of nauseous nurturing. I’m down on all fours to show you I care!

The Crocodettes go sped-up chipmunk vocals for “I Can’t Wait for Santa Claus.” a catchy, calculating treacle. The greed is ‘adorable,’ but the electronic brass is horrible.

Earnest and harmonious, The Polka Dots march-chant “I Can’t Wait for Christmas” with that mixed message of unbridled desire and snare drum. Confusing, and yet… math.

Bad mic and glockenspiel don’t slow Cheryl L Gleason’s “I Just Can’t Wait for Christmas,” which is more annoying chant to get the parents to give one up early, than actual kidsong.

Sue Bleazard’s SingKids! entry “Waiting for Christmas” is more plodding, but just as syncopated to introduce Bethlehem and JC and patience. No one wants to sing along with this.

A Near Thing -7

Riffling through my rolodex of musical genres i come across hymnal. Well, perhaps a bit more golspel-ish, these songs herald in the Advent of Xmas.

Sounds honkytonk rather than church, but Wild Bunch lays a gospel vibe on their odd “Almost Christmas,” a smoky, sultry psalmody. (Just had an Ally MacBeal flashback.)

Piano banging out the sins, raising voices to the rafters, nearly harmonizing, Michael Mills leads the group with a rousing “It’s Almost Christmas.” Can i get an exclamation point?

Just as disjointed, Stan Davis & Friends clomp into rock riffing “It’s Nearly Christmas Night.” The chorale is moral, oral, floral. I have no quarrel with it.

Secular Lights

Sometimes the light of Christmas is the means of getting through the darkest time of the year.

Darlene Como takes us across the galaxy to get us to the experimental oddity of “Christmas Eve by Candle Light.” I’m a little in the dark, here.

Drum gospel from Canticles of Light evokes a spiritual calling to home, hope, and hep-ness. “Light is Returning” is for that time of year, but that that particular church. Dig it.

Star Questions

Can’t miss that titanic twinkler in the East. Seems important. What’s it all mean?

Where’d she go? lonesome David Pomeranz wants to know from the “Christmas Star.” Pop music knows know boundaries.

Doubters gonna wonder. Paul Baloche goes country ballad with “Follow That Star,” but he has some posers before he takes it on faith. And gets the ultimate answer (which is the star).

Peggy Watson has the shepherds ask the “Star of Wonder” what to do with an uplifting pop folk round table. (That’s so good, i’ll listen to Sweet, Hot, & Sassy! sing it, too!)

Kidsongs love to ask the questions, because that’s how proselytizers trick ’em! (And because that’s basic human development.)

Starshine Singers point out “There’s a Star in the Sky” with their timpani. Where does? Who knows? Let’s find out! It’s a real puzzle.

Kidzone goes haunting alto with “There is a Star in the Sky.” Tell me, what can it mean? Then the answers come aplenty. So, presents. And glory.