Music/CD/Album Review: Johnny Mathis - Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas is a great holiday album. It was first released in 1959 with a mix of the very old, traditional Christmas songs (like O Holy Night, The First Noel, and Silent Night) as well as songs that are now old classics (like Winter Wonderland, The Christmas Song, White Christmas, and Silver Bells), but were still relatively new at the time, and were made famous during the "crooner" era which Mathis was definitely a part of. The last couple of songs (depending on what edition of the album you get) are not really classic songs but good nevertheless.

All of the classic, well-known songs on the album have very traditional arrangements (which I definitely like) and showcase Mathis' great voice. It is a great album to listen to on its own or to use as a part of a Christmas song playlist. If you are a fan of Christmas music, especially traditional songs, it is definitely one of the must-have albums. 

CD/Music/Album Review: Kenny G. Faith - A Holiday Album

Faith was the second, and now one of many Christmas/Holiday albums recorded by Kenny G. There are 12 songs in all on the album with a mix of classic traditional songs like The First Noel and Ave Maria, and classic songs like The Christmas Song, Let it Snow, Sleigh Ride, Oh Christmas Tree, and the like. The album also includes a Chanukah song called Eternal Light. Probably the highlight of the album is the Millennium Mix of Alud Lang Syne, in which audio clips from throughout history up through the major events of 1999 are played throughout the song. 

Whether you like this album really depends on, A) whether you like Christmas music and B) whether you can handle instrumentals with no vocals. Of course, Kenny G. is well known for playing Jazz on a tenor saxophone, however, the arrangements of the songs are very traditional. If you love Christmas songs, especially traditional arrangements (as opposed to what some pop acts/singers who put out Christmas albums do with the songs), then this is definitely worth listening to.

CD/Album/Music Review: Faith Hill - Breathe

 

Faith Hill's Breathe, released in 1999 was the album that crossed her over from Country to Pop music. I would say that she was more a hybrid than a total crossover act because the album did very much keep her country sound, but the big hits from the album, Breathe, and The Way You Love Me, were solidly in the category of adult-contemporary pop. Even for people like myself that are not that into country music, the country-sounding songs on the album are not extremely "twangy" like some country acts are, and thus people who get the album because of the song Breathe can enjoy the rest of them. Of course, in the days of streaming music (which was in its infancy when the album came out) can pick and choose which songs to buy without having to purchase the entire album. And, if you pay for an unlimited streaming service such as Amazon Music or one of the others, you can add whatever songs you like and leave off the ones you don't.

Overall, the album is very good. There are 13 songs in total, and is a good mix of her country sound and pop. Hill has a great voice, and while not every song on the album was a hit on the pop chart (I am not sure which songs charted on the country chart) all of the songs were very good, and better than a lot of what was on the pop chart in the late 90s/early 2000s and light years better than most of the pop music of today.

CD/Album/Music Review: Celine Dion - All The Way...A Decade of Song

All The Way...A Decade of Song was released in 1999 and is a mix of Celine Dion's greatest hits and new (at the time) material that she released for the album. It has 15 songs in total. The material released for the album included duets with Frank Sinatra and R-Kelly (which happened before the allegations of sexual abuse in his personal life came to light). The greatest hits material included songs like the theme from Titanic (My Heart Will Go On), which was probably her biggest hit, Beauty and the Beast, The Power of Love, and It's All Coming Back To Me Now) are included. While it does not include every hit she had up to that point in her career, but it has all the major ones.

Chances are if you were a fan of pop music in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, and especially if you liked ballads, you were probably a fan of Celine Dion. She was right up there with Mariah Carey as the women who were to the 90s what Madonna and Whitney Huston were to pop music in the 80s (even though both of them were still going pretty strong by the time Celine and Mariah hit it big. While Celine's career has pretty well tailed off by now, if you want a nice mix of her music, this is definitely a good choice.