Steven Curtis Chapman - The Music of Christmas
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CD Details
Artist: Steven Curtis ChapmanEdition: Music CD
Published: 1995
CD Release Date: 1995-09-26
Music Label: Sparrow
Product features:
- Audio CD
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/The Music of Christmas
- Christmas Is All in the Heart
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
- Our God Is With Us
- Interlude: The Music of Christmas
- This Baby
- Silent Night/Away in a Manger/O Holy Night
- Carol of the Bells
- O Come All Ye Faithful
- Going Home for Christmas
- Precious Promise
Music reviews of The Music of Christmas
Music Review: Well-Produced, Warm, and Inviting Contemporary Christian Christmas Album
Rating: 5 Stars
It's been said before that Amy Grant's A Christmas Album (1983) is the Nat King Cole of contemporary Christian Christmas albums -- the one that you always bring out year after year. I think that was true a decade and more ago, but I wouldn't be surprised if Stephen Curtis Chapman's The Music of Christmas (1995) has taken over that spot now. The Music of Christmas is just as inviting, inspiring, contemporary, and well-produced as Grant's album -- and some might say more so.
This is no small feat given the fact that Christmas albums (like, in prior decades, live albums) seemingly are career requirements for successful contemporary Christian artists. Chapman started work on this project in 1993, just after completing his Great Adventure tour supporting the album of the same name that catapulted him into stardom. He abandoned work on it, however, in favor of releasing a live album that fall. He then came back to this album two years later, after the even bigger success of Heaven in the Real World.
And the singer on this album sounds like the Steven Curtis Chapman of the Heaven in the Real World period. Oh, you'll only find only one purely pop song here ("This Baby"); this is a Christmas album, after all. But this album is still the work of the Steven Curtis Chapman who had not yet been stretched vocally, lyrically, musically, and just plain all-around artistically, on the Brown Bannister contemporary Christian music production rack. (The beneficial results of that stretching would be seen on Chapman's next pop album, Signs of Life.)
Nonetheless, Bannister is here as co-producer on The Music of Christmas, his very first venture with Chapman. As he proved on Grant's classic, Bannister knows how to create a Christmas album that is both contemporary and traditional at the same time -- and how to make it lush, warm, and inviting. Partly this effect is achieved through photographs of cabins, snowy Tennessee mountains, and Chapman and his wife Mary Beth enjoying the winter rustic setting. The message is clear: come and join our family in the celebration of Christmas.
The album itself begins with Chapman alone on guitar singing "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." But just in case you'd forget that this is a contemporary Christian album, we only get the first verse and chorus before a nice musical segue leads us into the title track. With singing children, a large choir, beautiful orchestrations, and an incredibly catchy chorus, it's no wonder that this song was successful on contemporary Christian radio.
From there, the album continues with a mixture of contemporary and traditional offerings. The old carols sport new arrangements that nevertheless mostly maintain a traditional feel. (The one exception here is a very modern arrangement of "Angels We Have Heard on High" with backing vocals from pop/rock band Chicago's Bill Champlin. Champlin also guested on Grant's first Christmas album and other Grant/Bannister pop collaborations.) The contemporary songs are pop in nature, but most of them honor the spirit of the season with some sense of reverence, awe, and even solemnity. There's even one instrumental medley of Christmas hymns that serves as an interlude. (Did Chapman and Bannister design the album with Christmas concert performances in mind?)
There are also an amazing number of potential singles on the album. Beyond the title track, "Christmas Is All in the Heart" (a duet with guest vocalist CeCe Winans), "Our God Is With Us" (co-written with Michael W. Smith), and "This Baby" are all Christmas single material. These songs easily could have provided Chapman with a year's worth of contemporary Christian music chart toppers. "Our God Is With Us" is particularly impressive, with Chapman surveying salvation history and Christ's incarnation for signs of hope.
The album does decrease in quality just a tad with its last two tracks. "Going Home for Christmas" tells the tale of a (fictional?) grandmother who died during one Christmas season. It's honest and emotional, but a little sappy and too pop country. (Chapman would tell a much more harrowing, and far better, story of a relative's departure on his next album's "What I Would Say.") "Precious Promise" concludes the album with a final telling of the Christmas story. It's not bad; unfortunately, neither is it memorable, since it sounds too much like a typical Chapman closing ballad.
These minor flaws aside, The Miracle of Christmas truly is an excellent album. You probably will not get any better than this among Christmas albums from popular contemporary Christian artists.
Description of The Music of Christmas
Audio CDChristian & Gospel CDs
Music Genres
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