Heart of the Holidays by Michael Whalen

Heart of the Holidays

By

Michael Whalen

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

It is always a bizarre time of the year for us residents of Cyprus, while others are preparing for the chill of winter, lining their homes with glitter, lights and trees, were sunbathing in roasting early winter temps, in very un-Christmas like conditions, so largely we rely on traveling vicariously to a winter Christmas scene through videos, and music like this latest gem of a release called Heart of the Holidays by Michael Whalen.

Whalen is the very epitome of originality and his starting point of Carol of the Bells is a wondrous highlighted version of a classic holiday theme. Carol of the Bells is a popular Christmas reverie, which is based on the Ukrainian New Year's song "Shchedryk" and Whalen does them proud with this glistening new version.

This is a thoughtful 10 piece album that contains all of your Christmas favourites from Angels We Have Heard On High, which is one of the most charming versions I have heard, to the more electronic adaptation of Silent Night. We even have one of the most vibrant variations of another classic in the famous Hark The Herald Angels Sing, a truly cheer filled narrative can be found here.

However Whalen gets truly creative on his own take of Jingle Bells, manifesting a delicious ballad of a piece, in one of the most fascinating versions. Jingle Bells is one of the most iconic holiday songs, originally written for Thanksgiving not Christmas in 1857 by James Lord Pierpont, but Whalen changes tempo, adds colour, and magic is born.

We touch the hem of greatness with Joy to the World, in all its glory and majesty, whilst God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen is one of the oldest known English Christmas carols, dating back to at least the 16th century. Its message is one of joy and spiritual reassurance, Whalen captures that middle ages feel with ease, and adds a perfect slice of reflection into the weave as well.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas is without doubt the most fun offering, or should I say Christmas gift from the entire album, in fact Whalen captures the original essence of this manifestation with his arrangement. Unlike many religious carols, this one is jocular and festive, focusing on goodwill and merriment rather than biblical themes.

Our penultimate narrative is a beauty and called Joyful We Adore Thee, this was originally written by Henry van Dyke, a Presbyterian minister, author, and professor at Princeton University, but here Whalen takes that narrative and adds a very modern feel to its construction, one that still has all the same fluency and style of the original.

So for another year we conclude this Christmas journey through music, and land on the last piece of our seasonal voyage, this hymn was originally written in Latin as Adeste Fideles around 1743–1751 by John Francis Wade, and Michael gifts us a last track of glory with an anthem styled version of O Come All Ye Faithful.

It’s been interesting over the years to watch the changing behaviours of Christmas albums over the decades I’ve been in the business, and I have seen the transformation from studiously creating a replica of the original, to this release, one that literally takes seasonal classics and shakes them into something a lot more palpable and real by being fun and inventive, which is why I believe that Heart of the Holidays by Michael Whalen is going to receive a lot of love from the across the world for its release to us all this holiday season.