Album Review: Mariah Carey - Merry Christmas

Whether you like Mariah Carey or not, you cannot deny that she changed the landscape of pop when it came to Christmas songs. And to think, she was reluctant to record a Christmas album and didn’t think it was a good idea. Husband and record label head at the time Tommy Mottola was trash, but he knew business. But even so, I don’t think even he knew that this lil’ Christmas album would go on to have such a long legacy, which would play such a key part in how Mariah would be branded decades later. And I’m sure as hell that Mariah didn’t see it coming either. Especially given that the album would only go on to have massive success long after it originally released back in 1994.Whilst Christmas albums in pop amongst white artists weren’t seen as being very cool, even within the genre itself at points in time when pop was being dragged and discredited; Christmas albums have always been prevalent in R&B and Soul amongst Black artists, because of its proximity to Christianity and gospel. The commodification of Christmas music was also something which Benny Gordy caught onto, hence a Motown Christmas - my first recollection of a Christmas album, and one I grew up listening to. So Christmas music for me was also synonymous with people who could actually sing; which is why Mariah Carey coming out with a Christmas album never seemed strange to me.

The jaded cynicism and attitude towards Christmas albums from a commercial and critical standpoint wasn’t something I was aware of until much later, and then I got why it was even a thing. But even so, I always stood firm in the notion of a good album being a good album, no matter its genre of theme. So there was never a barrier for me when it came to Mariah’s first Christmas offering. And even if they were, it’s difficult to deny a fair amount of what Mariah does here, because it’s not only wholly inoffensive, but it’s really good.

A big part of Merry Christmas is of course Mariah’s voice. Although this wasn’t as wowing to me in the context of Christmas music, because I’d grown up always hearing Black people with good-ass voices sing about mistletoe, trees and prum-pa-pum-pum.

Mariah Carey's voice was and still is a double edged sword. Back in the day, some were so in awe of her vocal range that it superseded the quality of her music. This isn't to say nobody cared about the quality of what Mariah put out. But so much focus was placed on Mariah’s vocals, that her artistry and the hand she had in creating the songs was always overlooked. Merry Christmas falls prey to this. It's easy to just listen to the album and praise Mariah's vocals, without acknowledging the musicality that she displays on every single song. It's one thing to have a good singing voice, but it's something else to be able to actually sing well, be dexterous with said voice, and also know how to utilise it on different types of songs which aren't your own.

Mariah’s vocals on Merry Christmas are great. This goes without saying. But what’s great about how Mariah sounds goes beyond her perfect pitch, her resonance, and how effortless she sounds. It’s her fearlessness. Mariah was still at a stage in her career where she was figuring out all what she could do with her voice and the limits of it. But she was never tentative. She hadn’t yet reached that point in her career of being super careful, precise and developing the templated form of singing songs that started to creep in with her next studio album Daydream. Mariah’s approach to the songs on Merry Christmas is different to what we know of her now. To such a point that it feels like you’re listening to somebody else. Only on the slower songs such as “O Holy Night” and “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” do we get a more tamed, careful and considered performance, which makes sense. But elsewhere, Mariah is just running rampant on each and every single one of these songs. And even on the slower songs, they hit a certain point where Mariah is like ‘FUCK IT’ and she’s off.

It would have been really easy for Mariah to have just belted every song, whistled at the end of each one, and done more than any song required. But as much as Mariah sets off on certain songs, there’s never a feeling that she’s doing too much. Everything Mariah gives vocally feels like the right amount, and this is a skill that not every vocalist with an amazing range possesses or ever learns. *Looks over at Christina Aguilera’s My Kind of Christmas* And Mariah not yet being locked into her templated singing, means that Mariah zigs and zags on every song, and things don’t always go how you’d expect. Post 1998 Mariah would have absolutely whistled at the end of “Joy to the World”, but she doesn’t here, and it’s kinda awesome. It’s an instance of Mariah never doing more than is necessary and not giving into what people’s expectations of her.

Most of Merry Christmas consists of covers of traditional Christmas songs, with three original songs written by Mariah Carey herself and her then partner in crime, Walter Afanasieff; one of them being the ridiculously successful “All I Want for Christmas Is You”. This song needs no introduction. Since its initial release in October of ‘94, it has become a Christmas standard and has long gone down as a Christmas classic to a point where it’s considered a traditional Christmas song. Even when I was at school, we were singing it in assemblies and during school nativities.

Only recently did I actually sit and listen to “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for the first time in a while, as opposed to just playing it for festive vibes and background music, and I was reminded of just how good a song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” actually is. The production. The songwriting. The melodies. The vocals. The whole damn song is so on point, that it’s almost unreal. It’s more than just a catchy song or an earworm, it’s a truly great pop song. How good a song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is gets overlooked because it’s a Christmas song and is just seen as one of many parts of the festive lexicon. But the song truly is something special, which speaks to Mariah’s artistry and how good a chemistry that she and Walter Afansaieff had at this point in time - even if neither is willing to admit it now.

Whilst “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is Mariah’s most popular Christmas song, it’s not her only good original Christmas song. Enter “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)”. One of these days we gon’ get #JusticeForMissYouMostAtChristmasTime. Fans know this song very well and love it. And rightly so. It’s a fantastic song. But it’s never really taken off, which is a shame. But sometimes it be like that.

“Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” is the complete opposite of “All I Want for Christmas Is You”. Whilst “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is about celebrating the presence of somebody in your life, “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” is about acknowledging the absence of them. No Mariah Carey album would be a Mariah Carey album without a song about loss. With the exception of “One Sweet Day”, these tend not to be the songs which are most commercially successful for Mariah, but fans and those who know the Mariah deep cuts, will always spotlight them as their favourites.

Loss isn’t something that many songwriters immediately gravitate towards when it comes to Christmas songs, but I personally feel it’s a very fitting theme for a Christmas song. Christmas can be a very melancholic time of year for some. It’s the one time of year where the feelings of loneliness that you’ve managed to suppress or distract yourself from for 11 months, find their way to the surface. Because not only does the world seem to slow down to allow you to sit in those feelings, but the image of togetherness, love and family is shoved in your face at every turn. “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” is poignant because it acknowledges a feeling at Christmas which I think is far more common than many are willing to admit.

Christmas for me personally is a time of year when I feel a little low and lonely. But I’m a weirdo, so I kind of relish in that strangely. I’ve always been okay with being alone, and sitting in feelings of loneliness and navigating them. So I always felt an affiliation to “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)”. The song also speaks to how Mariah is able to capture a very real feeling within a song, which is fundamentally what she’s always done and has continued to do since 1994; something which she still doesn’t get credit for.

Don’t let the quietness of “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” and the lack of widespread popularity around it fool you. It’s as great a Christmas song as “All I Want for Christmas Is You”.

The third original Christmas song “Jesus Born on This Day” is the weakest of the trio, but it’s not a bad song. In fact, it’s a great showcase of not only Mariah’s ability to write good Christmas songs, but that she truly gets the ingredients of a good Christmas song and the different contexts in which they play. “Jesus Born on This Day” shows that Mariah gets Christmas songs - just in case between “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” folk were still wondering if it was all a fluke. “Jesus Born on This Day” retells the famed nativity story and is written as though it is intended to be sung by school choirs. The call and response even invites it being sung by a teacher on a piano, with kids following; something which the song even sets up with the inclusion of a children’s choir singing in response to Mariah’s lead vocals. It’s not the most memorable song on the album, but it is nice. I had to double check the liner notes to make sure Mariah did indeed write it, because it sounds so familiar and like something I had sung before I’d even heard it for the first time. Mariah probably wasn’t betting on schools going for “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, hence why she wrote “Jesus Born on This Day” for them. But lo and behold… *gestures*

Merry Christmas' gambit is quite honestly how simple the whole thing is. The original Christmas songs ring with the familiarity of sounding like something you’ve heard before, and being easy to pick up after just one listen. Mariah’s covers of Christmas classics are simple and faithful.

Even when Mariah takes vocal liberties with some of the songs, it's never to an extent that it veers so far from the original that it becomes something different in the worst way; which is something that many artists get wrong with their contemporary Christmas covers. Mariah takes something like "O Holy Night" and makes it her own to such a point that it’s become the version to which I compare every other. But Mariah doesn't even change much of the song. In fact, she barely changes anything. And I think this is what makes her covers so special and universal. When you're listening to Mariah sing these songs, she's singing them how we know them, but in ways that we all wish we could, but can’t. She’s respectful to the originals, whilst still allowing herself to come through the song; but in the most effortless way as opposed to an insistence to smother the song. There’s a quiet confidence that Mariah has on Merry Christmas. She knows she’s able to do a lot by doing very little.

So many artists release Christmas albums which either don’t do enough, are too by numbers, or do far too much. It’s why I don’t dismiss good Christmas albums, because they aren’t the easiest of albums to get right. And Mariah managed to create something which has stood the test of time, set a standard and given her a marketing angle for all eternity, and a legacy far beyond that of that she’d achieved separate from this album. Roc and Roe won’t ever have to work a job a day in their lives off the back of this album.

Merry Christmas is a nice ride from start to finish. The sequencing isn’t the best, “Joy to the World” sticks out like a motherfucker, and “Santa Claus is Comin' to Town” would have worked better if it weren't for “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (both songs have the exact same lead-ins and vibes). But Mariah knew what she was doing with it, giving the gays something festive for the cribs and the clubs. And this kinda sums up Merry Christmas. It’s a very inclusive Christmas album which keeps Christmas at its core. It has pop moments. It has Soul moments. It has gospel moments. It has gay house moments. It has rock ‘n’ roll Rockettes moments. So many times artists will do Christmas albums and completely miss the brief. But Mariah truly does get it. Not that there’s anything wrong with genre specific or themed Christmas albums. But given the point in her career that Mariah was at when she recorded Merry Christmas, it makes complete sense that the album would run the popular gamut of songs which are associated with Christmas, and then a lil’ something extra.

Mariah’s first Christmas album isn’t really about her at all, which is what makes Mariah now being the appointed Queen of Christmas so funny to me. On the likes of “Silent Night”, “Joy to the World” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing / Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)” Mariah is happy to just take a step back and let her backing singers shine and carry the song. And there are numerous moments across this album where Mariah could’ve whistled until every wine glass in the house broke and a lung collapsed. But Mariah’s intent with every song is just for it to be good. It’s never about creating a personal showcase, which she inadvertently ends up doing anyway, because she sounds so good and that pen game is so good. And maybe this is part of why this album works as well as it does. Mariah led with Christmas. Which is the only way any artist should lead when crafting a Christmas album.

Verdict: It's festive

Highlights:
■ All I Want for Christmas Is You 🔥
■ O Holy Night
■ Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
■ Miss You Most (At Christmas Time) 🏆
■ Joy to the World
■ Hark! The Herald Angels Sing / Gloria (In Excelsis Deo) 🔥