Peaceful and Good
Posted November 28, 2008
By Nathan,
It’s only natural that one of the most popular artists in today’s contemporary Christian music scene should eventually make a Christmas album to finish off any seasonal yearning from fans. If the Alter and the Door was a step down for Casting Crowns does it mean that Peace on Earth will be another continuation of their average material in an effort to give fans something new?
When it comes to changing around the classics of the season Casting Crowns does very little which might be a good thing because of the disjointed tunes that are the result of remixing the Christmas classics. “Oh come all ye faithful” uses the guitar to give itself a more traditional tune; Lead singer Mark Hall and Megan Garrett trade off vocals often on that track and “joy to the world” and “silent night”. “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is a well crafted instrumental song, mixing the violin and piano very skillfully.
Casting Crowns did adjust “I heard the bells on Christmas day” to become the album’s anthem, and while their little tweaks, including a well placed children’s choir, made the song more dramatic, it also lost some of it’s caroling effect. “Sweet little Jesus boy” is very light exchanges complexity for emotional music. The song however is very childlike (‘This world treats You mean Lord/Treats me mean too’) which suits the song but it may not inspire awe in the hearers. “Christmas offerings” isn’t anything spectacular out side of some light percussion, plus it seems to implies that the shepherd’s and Wiseman came at the same time, but despite some diversity Megan Garrett does a great job driving the emotion in “God is with us”.
The lyrics have been Casting Crowns strong spot in their career but it’s hard to give hard core lyrics in a Christmas album. So in an attempt to put thought provoking lyrics in their CD the band rewrote “while you were sleeping” to give it a more holiday feel; the result was cutting the verse about Jerusalem out and working a few more lines about Christ’s birth which leaves the bit about America the odd verse out since there is no very little connection between Bethlehem and America but the lyrics are good (United States of America/Looks like another silent night/As we're sung to sleep by philosophies/That save the trees and kill the children’.
Peace on Earth’s focus is on Christ but the benefit of adding a few traditional non-Christian carols would add a more up tempo feel to a very slow album while adding more songs in a relatively short CD. Casting Crowns Christmas album will likely find itself on many shelves this Christmas, which is deserved, but it will probably fall short of becoming a true Christmas classic.
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