Strings fill our speakers with a wintry melody at the start of “Merry Christmas in Heaven,” the new single by Rob Alexander, and though their presence is undisputedly as captivating as a chilly December sunset, they offer just a small sampling of what’s to come in the next few minutes of play.
Rob Alexander has been garnering a lot of attention from both underground and mainstream critics in 2022, and while “Merry Christmas in Heaven” is a song designed around a very specific genre and theme in popular music, I see it as an extension of his artistry beyond that of being a vehicle to spike an otherwise lulling seasonal sales. With a galloping rhythm that is straight out of the 80’s pop/rock playbook and sweet vocals that adorn every beat with a wondrous color, this is a track that was meant to get us moving to its grooves right out of the gate, and whether you’ve heard his work before now or not, it’s tough to deny just how powerful a performance Alexander gives up in this latest release.
Most of the Christmas songs that I’ve heard this holiday season have followed the same common themes we’ve all come to know and love in the last half-century of pop, but in “Merry Christmas in Heaven,” Rob Alexander takes a different lyrical route to our hearts. He’s more of a melodic storyteller than an old-fashioned crooner in this single, and even though his voice is always at the very top of the mix, binding all of the instrumentation into a singular, vocal-led harmony, he lets the players in his band fill out the edges to make the track feel as big and boisterous as possible (especially in the chorus).
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There’s no particular point of catharsis in “Merry Christmas in Heaven” that outshines the others because the entire composition feels like a slow-releasing climax unaffected by the detriment of tension, sonic or otherwise. Alexander is putting something virtuosic down in this session, but despite the complexity of the piece, he doesn’t come off as arrogant in his delivery at all – which is another area where he stands apart from his closest mainstream rivals.
It’s not the most conventional holiday number that I’ve ever reviewed, but Rob Alexander’s fun “Merry Christmas in Heaven” works all the better for this exact reason. Alexander isn’t trying to be anyone but himself here, and while he’s not showing us anything about his artistic personality that we didn’t already know before this most recent release, I don’t think he was trying to break any new ground with the song.
He’s got an amazing gift to share with his audience, and in “Merry Christmas in Heaven,” he’s pulling out all the stops to present that gift in a setting tailor-made for the excited holiday lover in all of us. No Christmas pop templates were used in the making of this recording, and though it’s sad to admit, that’s something I just can’t say about the bulk of new holiday singles out this month.
Heather Savage