Review Summary: "Christmas will be here, and soon you'll hear our song in every room this merry Christmas night."
Two years ago, I was desperately plowing through iTunes pages looking for something more than Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" to grace my iPod with for the holiday season, when simple album art with a clever title caught my eye. I saw that the artist was Relient K, and although I'd only heard their singles, I enjoyed what I was familiar with, so I figured I had no reason not to look into it. It was an impulse decision, but easily the best one I've ever made. Well, let's go with the best Relient-K-Christmas-music-related impulse decision I've ever made.
Perhaps what I love most about Let It Snow, Baby... Let It Reindeer is the immediate presence of Christmas atmosphere from the second "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" begins to the last note of hidden track "Good King Wenceslas." We've all heard too many holiday singles from various artists that we're frankly unsure about the holiday nature of, relying on a lyric involving shopping or snow to tell us that we're listening to a Christmas song. Relient K avoid this completely, never allowing a question of the album's intentions. Something about the vocals and instrumentation simply have traits that remind one of the holiday season.
The moods of this album are incredibly varied, from a hilarious rant about getting nothing for Christmas due to contributing to the greenhouse effect, to a touching ballad about the birth of Christ. While there is plenty of cheer to go around here, the band also includes a healthy amount of Yuletide gloom. The loneliness communicated by "Merry Christmas, Here's to Many More," along with its nostalgic climax, and the dream-like outro easily makes it the best Christmas song I have ever heard. "I Hate Christmas Parties" serves as a fantastic, relatable tune about a holiday break-up.
The songs mentioned in the previous paragraph are original Relient K songs, but the bulk of the album is an excellent collection of covers of traditional carols. To call these tracks "traditional" does not in any way imply that they sound like the so-called classic Christmas songs one hears on the radio throughout the season. The band makes each song their own creative work, and boy, does it pay off. There's not a boring moment on the album. Joys such as the entertaining time changes of "12 Days of Christmas" and the extremely to the point "Handel's Messiah" create a perfect listen for any short-attention-span holiday music fans.
Even some post-Christmas value is offered from "Boxing Day" and "In Like a Lion," songs about the day after Christmas and waiting for Spring to warm the world again. There is literally something here for anyone and everyone except the neighborhood Scrooge, with comedic pop-punk, moving ballads, and upbeat covers of Christmas favorites. I'm still waiting to get tired of this album, now in my third Christmas season of loving it, but I simply don't think I ever will.
