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Saints!

Thursday
March 28th, 2024

kelly clarkson when christmas comes around spotlight pageCourtesy photoELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Like I mentioned here last week, I’ve been on the hunt for some good Christmas music to listen to throughout this month, and recently, during my searching on YouTube, I came across Kelly Clarkson’s new Christmas album “When Christmas Comes Around” and decided to give it a listen. Ultimately, I’m very glad I did. 

The first thing I noticed about the album is it’s got slightly more edge than typical Christmas albums. Some of the songs on the album are the traditional happy Christmas songs everyone knows, but there are also some songs that are a touch more melancholy than what would normally be on a Christmas album. This could be attributed to Clarkson’s recent divorce, and having that bit of a melancholic edge on a Christmas album is actually a little refreshing because the holiday season isn’t necessarily happy and joyful for everyone, so this could provide some catharsis for listeners going through a rough time this holiday season. 

Sticking with that observation, there are a pair of songs in particular I feel pretty well capture the roller coaster of emotions that can happen after a breakup, and those are “Merry Christmas Baby” and “Merry Christmas (To The One I Used to Know).” “Merry Christmas Baby,” to me, sounds like a point after the breakup when someone is trying to throw themselves (maybe a little too much) out into the world to forget about their breakup, and then “Merry Christmas (To The One I Used to Know)” comes at a point where someone is reflecting on the ended relationship and wishing for the good times to be happening again. Anyone who has been through a breakup has been on that roller coaster before, and I really feel like these two songs particularly capture that. 

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Something else I liked about the album was how it’s comprised of mostly original songs. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy listening to the Christmas hymns and classics like “Jingle Bell Rock” and “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” when they come up, but it’s always nice when there’s some original songs thrown into the mix for people to listen to during the Christmas season. All the songs on the album are well written and you can really hear the effort put forth with all of them. One of the songs I thought was particularly well written was “Blessed,” which I felt really captures how people should be during the Christmas season. The chorus is very sweet, and lyrics “When I'm down and I'm lost, and I'm tired/When it feels the whole world is on fire/Close my eyes and imagine a choir/Even when I feel like a mess/Have to take a good look inside me, yes/In the hurts where I found the Holy, I guess/I'll never be perfect, but I try my best/To remember I'm blessed” are also very encouraging as far as telling people to take some time every once in a while to just breathe and slow down to remember what they’ve got in life. Overall, the lyrics are very strong, particularly with the original songs on the album, and I really enjoyed that while I was listening. 

Keeping with that, I liked how the songs were almost like individual stories. While the album itself isn’t set up in that format, the songs each had a story to tell, especially in regards to having a rough time during the holiday season due to a breakup or other circumstances in life. 

I also have to compliment the vocals on the songs throughout the album, starting with Clarkson herself. Her powerful soprano easily moves through each note of each song, and she’s also able to convey a lot of passion and emotion with each song, particularly with “Merry Christmas (To The One I Used to Know),” which nearly brought tears to my eyes purely because of the emotion in her singing. I also really liked all the collaborations on the album, which include Brett Eldredge and Ariana Grande, among others. Clarkson and her collaborators all sang really well together and were really fun to listen to throughout. My favorite collaboration on the album was her song “Under the Mistletoe” with Eldredge – their voices blend very well together and it’s also a pretty fun song to listen to with a good beat. I also liked her duet “Glow” with Chris Stapleton – his gravelly deep voice blended so well with Clarkson’ soprano and the overall effect of the song was very well done. 

I also liked how several of the songs had a strong orchestra behind them, I feel like it added a good extra dimension to everything, and all those musicians are super talented, so my hat goes off to those in the orchestra. 

Overall, I very much enjoyed listening to “When Christmas Comes Around” from Kelly Clarkson and I would give it a solid “A” grade. That slight melancholic edge to a Christmas album is actually kind of refreshing, and the range of emotions experienced in the midst of a breakup are very well expressed throughout the album. I also really liked how the album consists of mostly original songs instead of just covers of already well known Christmas songs and hymns. The vocal performances are also really good on each of the songs, particularly Clarkson herself, making each song a joy to listen to. If you’re looking for a good Christmas album, this is one to cue up.