Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} We haven’t coughed up coin for a Mariah Carey album in a while, but we’ll go the mat with anyone who doesn’t think her 1994 holiday album Merry Christmas is stone-cold awesomeness. Its genius is in rebooting the (wall of) holiday sound that made the 1963 album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector so influential that everyone from Bruce Springsteen to U2 has cribbed from it. So we were all ants-in-pants about her long overdue follow-up Merry Christmas II You, out this week (with its almost identical cover to that of the nineties disc).
The video for the first single, Oh Santa, revisits the Spector vibe more in look and feel than sound. In it, Mariah is a Rockette—the only Rockette on stage—who’s starring in her own Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall while a mini-gospel choir, tween cheerleaders and would-be Pips shimmy spastically behind her. Also of interest: Mariah is preggers in the video, hence the long shots or close-ups—very little bump-centric footage here—though not as preggers as in yesterday’s interview with Ellen.
And finally, this track marks the return of the classic Carey High C, the falsetto note she used to stunt-warble in every song to prove she was better than everybody, the one only dogs and piano tuners can hear. Aw, it’s the ’90s all over again! As for the song… maybe it’ll grow on us.
More at Idolator.
What I'm listening to: In Trouble with the Lord – Karen Elson
