{"id":40101,"date":"2006-12-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/let-it-begin\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:13","slug":"let-it-begin","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/let-it-begin\/","title":{"rendered":"Let It Begin&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There has been a recent discussion on the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/forum.dailyvault.com\">Daily Vault Forum<\/a> (which, if you haven\u2019t checked out, you should) about essential Christmas CDs. While there has been varying responses, I admit my tastes run more towards the traditional \u2013 my favorite being Nat King Cole\u2019s. So it was probably foreordained that I would enjoy Christmas music from theatrical tenor Mike Eldred, as his tastes run nicely towards the traditional, too, with just a few surprises thrown in to make it interesting. <i>Let It Begin\u2026<\/i> is his second CD, and it\u2019s well worth a look. <\/p>\n<p>Eldred has a varied and extensive musical resume, having appeared on CDs by <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/artist\/jim-brickman-795\/\">Jim Brickman<\/a>; performed in <i>Jesus Christ Superstar<\/i>, <i>Les Miserables<\/i>, and <i>The Hunchback Of Notre Dame<\/i>; and guested with multiple symphony orchestras and ensembles across the <country-region><\/country-region><place><\/place>US. His voice is pleasant, fluid, and elegant, with a gifted tenor range, and the musicians he works with on <i>Let It Begin\u2026<\/i> are talented in the extreme.<\/p>\n<p>The greatest <city><\/city><place><\/place>high point on <i>Begin\u2026<\/i> is the song selection. A lot of holiday albums tread the same old ground, with the obligatory version of songs like \u201cJingle Bells.\u201d Instead, we are gifted with \u201cThe Most Wonderful Time Of The Year,\u201d \u201cLet There Be Peace On Earth,\u201d and a great cover of \u201cBelieve\u201d from <i>The Polar Express<\/i>. Even better, as far as I\u2019m concerned, are wonderful versions of \u201cIn The Bleak Midwinter\u201d and \u201cA Cradle In Bethlehem,\u201d two of my favorites &#8212; and, in my opinion, most underappreciated &#8212; holiday songs.<\/p>\n<p>When you add contemporary songs like \u201cDecember Makes Me Feel This Way\u201d and \u201cWandering Star,\u201d we have a modern classic. If the idea of having to listen to Mariah Carey vamp her way through \u201cAll I Want For Christmas Is You\u201d <b>again<\/b> makes your teeth hurt, you should immediately get a copy of Mike Eldred\u2019s <i>Let It Begin\u2026<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":28624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7882],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40101","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mike-eldred","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40101","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40101"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}