"Remembering When You Were Mine" — A Mariah Carey Review Series: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, 1994

Carey's fourth studio album, released only a year after her biggest album "Music Box," is a Christmas-themed album titled, well, "Merry Christmas." The album is filled with classic Christmas carols and ballads, with three additional original songs completing the collection. Let's take a look.

It starts with a serene take on "Silent Night," a song about the nativity story. Carey's take builds the song around the atmospheric soundscape from the production. It truly sounds as if you're listening to a biblical narrator singing about the story in the barn where Jesus Christ was born. Talk about a journey to the past.

The album then continues to the next song, "All I Want for Christmas Is You." The first original composition here, this is a song that I believe so many people have already known even from the title alone. One of the most famous songs on Earth, and I can hear why. Cheerful production amidst an even more cheerful singing delivered by Carey, its lyrics speak about a wish on a Christmas day that is so very simple: all I want for Christmas is...you!

"Oh Holy Night" comes next. This song–which has infamously been taken as another "Silent Night" when in truth it's a song about expecting the return of the Messiah on judgement day–contains a church-y arrangement that highlights the classic's holiness quality. Carey's singing goes from the lowest notes available to man, to soaring above the highest of the skies. If you've ever doubted her ability or skill before, then this song will surely clamp your mouth shut.

One thing about the album that I actually finds slightly displeasing is the lack of warmth throughout most songs. On ballads like the original "Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)," there's so much attention given to making the song sounds as immaculate as possible which, ironically, makes the song sounds oddly mechanical despite being a standout. There's also a mega-grand-sounding "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/In Excelsis Deo" which works wonders technically speaking, but sounds too programmed and thus ends up feeling hollow.

"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," a song that surely inspired Carey to make her own version of it (see: "All I Want for Christmas Is You") is the rare occasion where we actually get a good glimpse that the title seems to promise. A very bubbly and charming remake of the carol complete with sounds of children's squeals and other nonsensical noises, it truly sounds like the merriest Christmas.

There are other tunes here worth noting, such as the solid "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home," the delicious rendition of "Joy to the World," and the fully gospel performance on "Jesus Oh What a Wonderful Child." For every joys, though, we're yet again reminded by how utterly chill and lax Christmas can be by the third original song, "Jesus Born on This Day," a song that tells the nativity story yet again. It seems that for her effort to make the album respectable for many Christian households, Carey sets out to make Christmas music that sounds both festive and utterly joyless, all at the same time.

- Daud Rotama, Dec 2024