Get Your Music on Amazon!
Get Your Music - and everything else - on Amazon! All purchases made on Amazon through this link earn a commission for Jesusfreakhideout.com!

JFH Music Review


Sidewalk Prophets, Merry Christmas To You
CLICK COVER TO ENLARGE

Sidewalk Prophets
Merry Christmas To You



Artist Info: Discography
Album length: 12 tracks: 44 minutes, 00 seconds
Street Date: September 24, 2013


Sidewalk Prophets clearly know what they want to communicate with the cover of their first full-length Christmas album, Merry Christmas To You: Fun. With a cartoon image of the band around a Christmas tree, they illustrate the musical direction they want to take, and the album mostly fulfills this desired effect.

Kicking things off with Linus from Peanuts reciting Luke chapter 2 from that classic scene in A Charlie Brown Christmas is a great touch. The song it introduces, "What A Glorious Night," is a pretty good slice of Mumford & Sons style folk rock, complete with the requisite hand claps and banjos. This style of song agrees with the Prophets, and lead singer David Frey's voice sounds great in this context.

Actually, Frey's voice carries a lot of the songs on this album. Second song, the classic "White Christmas," swings on a 50's do-wop groove, while Frey does his best Bing Crosby. Francesca Battistelli slides in next to Frey for a groovy duet, and the two mesh well and do the sentimental Christmas song justice.

"Give Me Christmas" is a little too schmaltzy, and the band comes to the end of its funkiness here. "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" fairs better; it's at this point though that the onslaught of songs with the word "Christmas" in the title start to blend together a bit.

"Hey Moon" is a nice treat in the middle of all of this. A slower, more reflective tune, the band shines more on the originals like this than on the obligatory standards. The same goes for "Hope Was Born This Night" and the upbeat "Because It's Christmas." The two carols here, "Silent Night" and "What Child Is This," are both well done, but are fairly straight-laced in their presentation. Perhaps it's time to retire many of the old 20th century Christmas pop tunes (at least new versions of them) and start to write the next great batch.

That said, Sidewalk Prophets did well to emphasize the fun and good times of the holidays on their first Christmas album, and by that measure, a few missteps aside, there is much to make you smile on Merry Christmas To You.

- Review date: 12/4/13, written by Alex "Tincan" Caldwell of Jesusfreakhideout.com



(JFH Sponsor Spot)

Check out JFH's Lloyd in his first-ever childrens book!

 

. Record Label: Fervent Records / Word
. Album length: 12 tracks: 44 minutes, 00 seconds
. Street Date: September 24, 2013
. Buy It: iTunes
. Buy It: Amazon Music (MP3)
. Buy It: Amazon.com

  1. What A Glorious Night (5:04)
  2. White Christmas (feat. Francesca Battistelli) (3:31)
  3. Give Me Christmas (3:41)
  4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (4:25)
  5. Hey Moon (3:26)
  6. Merry Christmas To You (3:02)
  7. Holly Jolly Christmas (2:26)
  8. What Child Is This (3:20)
  9. That Spirit Of Christmas (4:23)
  10. Silent Night (3:35)
  11. Hope Was Born This Night (3:54)
  12. Because It's Christmas (3:13)

 

Leave a Comment

 

 

go to main Album review page
go to Album review archive

 

 

                 
Check out JFH's Lloyd in his first-ever childrens book!

Search JFH



This Friday, May 16, 2025
ALBUMS
Confessions of a Traitor This Pain Will Serve You [Facedown]
Free Worship Praise Before It Happens [BEC]
GVTH DVDDY GVTH DVDDY [Velvet Blue]
Karen Peck & New River Good Answers [Daywind]
Lecrae & Miles Minnick Get Well Soon! [Reach]
Seventh Day Slumber Fractured Paradise: Garden of Shadows [Rockfest]
Sons of Sunday Sons of Sunday [Elevation]

SINGLES
AyeTJ Outdated - Single [Syntax]
Elan Brio Perfect Timing - Single (independent)
Melissa D Will I Be Bored in Heaven? - Single (independent)
Will Kellum Ready or Not - Single [Syntax]
Britt Nicole FAITH - Single (independent)
Makara Walk By Faith - Single [DREAM/DBMIX]
MAYIA Where Do I Go? (ft. Cutright) - Single [Syntax]
Matt Sassano My Armor - Single (independent)
Seph Schlueter Won't Start Now - Single [Provident]

VINYL
Petra The Best For Last (Studio Edition) Vinyl [Girder]

Next Tuesday, May 20, 2025
BOOKS
Shai Linne Penelope Judd [B&H]
Tauren Wells Joy Bomb: Unleash Jesus’s Explosive Joy for an Extraordinary Life [Zondervan]

Next Friday, May 23, 2025
ALBUMS
Big Daddy Weave Let It Begin [Curb]
ELEVATION RHYTHM Victory Lap [Elevation]
Signum Regis The Eyes of Power (Remixed & Remastered 2025) [Beyond the Storm]

SINGLES
Roxanne Grace Road Trip - Single [DREAM]
V1 Worship Fool for You - Single [DREAM Worship]



For all release dates, click here!
 

Join honey and save on online purchases!
Get all of JFH's indie compilation now totally free!
Check out depositphotos for royalty free images