Track by Track Review
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Away In a Manger This instrumental take of the classic song features violin and what sounds like drum machine. |
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O Holy Night The mix on this is similar to the opener, but this has more energy and rhythmic arrangement is more involved.
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Silent Night Not a big change, this has some piano, but almost feels like an extension of the last track into a medley. |
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Home Sweet Home For Christmas Another that feels cut from similar cloth, there is some prominent piano on this track. |
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Chopin’s Nocturne Night Before Christmas There is more of a waltz approach to this piece. It's intriguing and works well. |
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Nutcracker Candy Cane by Tchaikovsky This energetic romp seems about ready to cut loose and really start shredding, but it stays classical in nature instead. |
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Greensleeves Christmas Carol While no big change, this is another solid tune. |
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Vivaldi’s Winter Snow Storm Frantically paced and very cool, this is one of my favorites here. |
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Bach’s Jesu Joyeux Noël I love the classical concepts at the heart of this, too. This is another standout number. |
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Handel’s Hallelujah Messiah There is more of a driving, rocking element to this number. It's all class and another highlight. |
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Pachelbel’s Canon Christmas Eve I really like this one a lot. It's such a pretty piece of music, and it's delivered with passion and style. |
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Amazing Grace Merry Christmas Let me go on record as saying that "Amazing Grace" is a piece of music I very much dislike. It gets altered enough here to be more bearable, but I think folks who don't have my feeling of distaste toward it will like this much more than I do. |
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Beethoven’s Christmas Presents Für Elise Now, we go from a song I don't really care for to one I love. This treatment of the piece works really well. It's not a big departure from the rest of the album, but it's quite strong. It does get into an unusual speeding up movement near the end. |
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Ave Maria Mistletoe Here we have another winner. It's not one of my favorites here, but it works very well. I think it's just the strength of a few of the other pieces that keeps it from rising to the top for me, rather than any weakness here. It's packed full of emotion. |
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Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze Holiday Classic This works quite well, too, while not presenting any real surprises. |
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Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Sleigh Ride The arrangement on this serves it well. |
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Flower Duet Yuletide A gentle classical vibe is on display here. |
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Boccherini Merry Minuet I really like the classical sounds on this, and the more modern groove that some of it has. It's another interesting instrumental track. |
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He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands Santa This is an unusual, but effective classical take on familiar sounds. |
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Auld Lang Syne Christmas Hangover I think this is one of my favorites here. It just works so well. |
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