It’s a fact that each Christmas season, the popular acts of the
\nyear will undoubtedly choose to release a holiday album. C’mon,
\nnow, a show of hands… how many of you actually own the Christmas
\nalbum from New Kids On The Block? Hanson? Boyz II Men? Garth
\nBrooks? (Keep in mind, Brooks has a
\nsecond<\/i> Christmas album coming out… oy.)<\/p>\n
As Christmas 1999 draws closer, one of the big-three boy bands,
\n98\u00b0, throws their Santa hat into the ring with their release
\nThis Christmas<\/i>, becoming (at least to the best of my
\nrecollections) the first of the present crop to get a disc on the
\nmarket. And whether you think that this group is overpackaged and
\noverpromoted, you’ve got to admit that they can make some of these
\nsongs sound very pretty, and this is a wonderful disc.<\/p>\n
Now, I freely admit that I’m a purist when it comes to the
\n“classics” of the holiday season. I grew up with the original
\nversion of “The Little Drummer Boy” from The Harry Simeone Chorale,
\nand I still prefer that version. I can’t say that I was
\nparticularly thrilled with the interpretations and changes made to
\nthe version that 98\u00b0 – Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre
\nand Jeff Timmons – made. Sorry, gang, but I like to hear the whole
\nverses, not edits.<\/p>\n
But I’ll also be the first one to admit when 98\u00b0 does a
\nwonderful job on a classic. I liked their takes on “The Christmas
\nSong” (even if I thought it was a tad fast), “Oh Holy Night,”
\n“Silent Night” and “Ave Maria”. I don’t expect artists to touch
\n“Ave Maria” for a number of reasons, but the four-piece harmony
\nvocals make this song soar into the stratosphere.<\/p>\n
If their vocals can do that to a standard holiday song on
\nThis Christmas<\/i>, you can imagine what they can do to more
\nmodern tracks. Both versions of “This Gift” have a special kind of
\nmagic to them, even if they lose some of the traditional Christmas
\nspirit that I’ve come to expect from holiday music. “If Every Day
\nCould Be Christmas,” the album’s opener, is simply amazing, and is
\na powerful way for the group to open up this disc. (Hmm, every day
\nbeing Christmas… wasn’t that the theme of a “Sesame Street”
\nspecial?)<\/p>\n
Sure,
\nThis Christmas<\/i> is aimed at the teenybopper audience, and I’m
\nsure that young girls who already have their bedrooms papered with
\npictures of their musical idols will rush out and grab this disc.
\nBut the fact is that
\nThis Christmas<\/i> is a disc that even their parents can enjoy
\njust for the harmonies. Anyone can rush a Christmas disc out on the
\nmarket, but it does sound like 98\u00b0 put more than a little time
\nand effort into this one – and the end result is quality.<\/p>\n
It would be easy to say that in a few years, after the shine of
\n98\u00b0’s star has faded, this disc will be left to the ages. But
\nI’ve got a feeling that the artistry in their vocals will help to
\ninsure that
\nThis Christmas<\/i> will become a holiday standard in many
\nhouseholds for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6182],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36359","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-98-degrees","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36359"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36359"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}