Review: Christmas Is Here by Brandon Heath

Christmas Is Here, by Brando Heath is a nice Christmas album that has a couple missteps, but mostly brings a lot of charm to the season. Like with most CCM Christmas albums, this one has three different kinds of songs: traditional Christian, traditional secular, and original. The traditional Christian songs are where Heath excels. I'm always looking for a good cover of a traditional Christian Christmas song. That was one of the highlights for me with this album. This is the first album in my collection to have the songs In A Bleak Midwinter and O Little Town of Bethlehem. Heath's covers of these songs are simple and reverent, which is something there isn't enough of in modern Christmas albums. 

Added to the list of traditional Christian songs are; Away In A Manger, Go Tell It On The Mountain, Silent Night, and O Come All Ye Faithful/Angels We Have Heard On High. Heath does a good job of covering all of these songs, but none of them stood out to me as the best versions I have ever heard of these songs. If you are looking for an awesome version of Go Tell It On The Mountain (tied for my personal favorite Christmas song), then you're better off going for Francesca Battistelli's version. That being said, if you aren't looking for near perfection with any of these songs, Heath does a good enough job of covering them for the casual fan. 

The lone traditional secular Christmas song on the album is The Christmas Song. Nobody comes close to doing this song as well as Nat King Cole. That being said, I have heard and loved a lot of covers of this song, and Heath's version is just as good as any of those. 

What really makes Heath's album worth owning are the original songs. Well, at least most of them are worth owning. The Day After Thanksgiving, an attack on celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving, is easily the worst song on the album. I'm partial, cause I think complaining about when people start celebrating Christmas is just pointless and stupid. If you are a Scrooge who is into that sort of thing, then yes, the song has an okay sound to it. I would just like to point out that this album came out in October. Just A Girl is an interesting take on the night of Jesus birth from the perspective of the Inn Keeper who denied Mary and Joseph a room. A lot of times when people do original songs about this subject, it comes out as cheesy or overly sentimental, but Heath does a really good job of not going overboard with this one. The stand out on the album for me is Momma Wouldn't Lie To Me. This fun, hilarious, and well written song is reason enough to buy the album. 

Track Listing: 

Track 1: The Day After Thanksgiving

Track 2: The Christmas Song

Track 3: O Little Town of Bethlehem

Track 4: Just A Girl

Track 5: In The Bleak Midwinter

Track 6: Momma Wouldn't Lie To Me

Track 7: Away In A Manger

Track 8: Go Tell It On the Mountain

Track 9: Silent Night

Track 10: O Come All Ye Faithful/Angels We Have Heard On High