As many of you know, I don't like Christmas music. Last year, I was blown away by Trevor Gordon Hall's Christmas album. I listened to it for probably about 2 months straight and still occasionally listen to it, nowhere close to Christmas time. It's better than that good. This year, I figured I'd give another Christmas album a try. So I pre-ordered August Burns Red's, Sleddin' Hill.
I'm a long time ABR fan. My first show was their first show with Josh McManness, where Jon Hershey came out for one final song with the band. Since then, I've seen them at a number of different venues, probably numbering about 15 total shows. I'm even in their live DVD, Home.
So I wanted to like this. Leveler, out in 2011, was a pretty solid album. It showed progression. Still hard to stand up next to Thrill Seeker, but progression nonetheless. And that's what I wanted - something fresh and interesting.
And I got Christmas music.
I listened to this for weeks; it sat in my cars CD player as I searched for something redemptive. At the end of every ride, however, I was left incredibly disappointed.
I think a few things played into this:
JB Brubaker has cited the album as showing a lot more punk influence than the typical ABR. Honestly, though, there is no discernible punk influence in any other ABR, so it doesn't tie well into the rest of their catalog. If they truely do enjoy punk, I get it, but I'm not a huge punk fan, so this did not sit well with me.
If you're going to do a punk album, make it punk. That means raw, unadulturated music. It doesn't have to sound like it has been recorded from a dilapidated garage on cheap guitars and cheap distortion pedals; mainly, it just needs to sound like you're seeing it live. This album, however, sounds sterile and over-produced. And compressed. Oh, how I loathe over-compression.
It's uncreative. The few originals they had are pretty solid tracks. They're inventive. The rest of the album is Christmas music. In order to succeed with a cover so vastly overdone, you have to reinvent the song; it can't just sound like frosty the snowman on speed.
The only vocals are on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It's in a punk-esque way, but just doesn't make me think ABR. They would have done better without. Either that, or I really wanted to hear some screaming through the whole album... That would be ABR.
Like I said, I'm unimpressed.
I wrote 90% of this review before Christmas. I didn't publish it until now, because I didn't want people to subject themselves to this prior to Christmas. I won't even link to it.
Now that Christmas is over, forget that ABR even did a Christmas album. Take a trip back in time and listen to Thrill Seeker.
Christmas music sucks. It's the same songs, year after year, played incessantly for more than a month straight of EVERY SINGLE YEAR. It doesn't matter that there are new artists singing them; they're doing nothing new. For this reason, I limit myself to only listening to Christmas music at church and on Christmas and Christmas eve. That's it.
And it's not me being anti-Christmas or anything. I hate the commercialization of it and the music; that's it.
Needless to say, my expansive music collection has chosen to skip over the Christmas-themed music. I have 3 Christmas albums: the RelientK one from when I was in middle school, my friend Matt's band, and Trevor Gordon Hall's, Let Your Heart Be Light, The Christmas Album. I haven't listened to the Relient K one in eons and, honestly, I haven't unwrapped Matt's yet. If I try to preempt the Christmas music strike, bad things happen.
But somewhat out of obligation, I decided to take a risk this year. A HUGE risk. About a week ago, I got out Trevor's album and threw it in my car. I replaced the live August Burns Red album (that I was at the show for!) to listen to Christmas music?! And I'm there asking myself, Why?!
It's Trevor Gordon Hall. He's a musical genius, innovator, and a friend. My logic was that if anyone could do Christmas music right, it'd be a guy with vision like Trevor's. But the whole time I'm nervous. I REALLY don't like Christmas music. I'm thinking to myself, will my respect for Trevor disintegrate after hearing this? Am I going to impulsively drive into oncoming traffic to stop this? What will happen if I actually do like it?! How should I feel?
Yes, I did wonder ALL of those things. But in a moment of trust, I hit play and began my venture to work. It's less than 20 minutes, so I figured, worst case, it'd be a crappy morning drive.
I didn't expect, however, to pop the disc out and take it in to work with me. But sometimes you're broadsided like that. I had high hopes and reasonable expectations, but this album I would listen to year-round.
Here's the breakdown:
It starts out with Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas; commercialized and generic, but fresh. It's got a nice intro tacked onto it and some good harmonic work throughout.
Next is I Saw Three Ships. This is played in a very Trace Bundy-like style; some nice finger work to start off, followed by a very bouncy rhythm that has you bopping back and forth to the music.
O Holy Night follows with a more traditional sound, but done very elegantly. It's got a Don Ross feel to it. Nice and peaceful with few surprises, but just a generally good sounding piece.
The First Noel starts out with The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire). It's a good, familiar way to lead into the meat of the song. What got me about this one, time and time again, was how organic it sounded; there is so much string noise in all of the right places. So many people try to remove any extraneous noises when these are the ones that make the guitar sing.
White Christmas - from the start you've got this big, resonating harmonic. The song is big and open. A lot of times guys will try to cram as many notes as possible into these songs, but this is the perfect balance.
Frosty the Snowman - pretty typical, but spiced up with some sleigh bells and harmonica part way through the song.
Auld Lang Syne - he brings in a Rhodes and a glockenspiel for this song. I love the sound of glock and guitar. Matt Stevens turned me onto that. There's just something about that mellow bell-like resonance... It's a great arrangement.
Silver Bells - it starts out with what sounds like a ukulele and then gets some nice slide work overlaid on top. It's adds a nice mix to the album. If I had to guess, there's also some looping going on here, as Trevor does some pretty crazy stuff live and would probably be able to do the whole thing live...
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - fretless bass intro. YES! It's super smooth and is coupled with a slow gear kinda volume swell effect on the guitar. There is actually a lot more focus on the bass than the guitar on this one - which on a 15 track album makes for a good break.
Christmas Time Is Here - this brings you back to the guitar-centricity of the album. It's got some nice quiet acoustic parts and then jazzy, lightly distorted leads with a hint of delay, over top.
Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep) - is that an e-bow? The spacey, sustain of an e-bow really adds to an album that is, overall, a little slower. Good call by Trevor.
Angels We Have Heard On High - it's nothing exciting, but definitely helps to bring the album together more. It's one of those things I guess you expect to hear, and, like many other tracks on this album, can take you back to the stripped-down simplicity of the original hymns.
Edelweiss - throughout the album, there a few places where Trevor uses an e-bow really subtly. It's one of those things that differentiates between good and great. Here's another instance of that.
Christmas Medley - Usually the contents of a song like this would be enough Christmas music for me for the year. Instead, I've listened to this album maybe 10 times so far. It really is that good.
And there's a bonus track. You'll have to check that one out for yourself...
So tonight and tomorrow you need to listen to this. It is literally the only album on my approved Christmas music list.
