Rob Alexander is crooning with all of his heart and soul in the opening lines of his new single “Merry Christmas in Heaven,” and with his words, he is instantly painting a picture of an American holiday with modern, albeit unfanciful, poetry. The strings swing along to a swift beat in the backdrop, but nothing is rushed here; Alexander is taking his time to make this as original a Christmas song as he can, which as most already know, is no easy challenge for any artist to face down. There’s a lot of adrenaline in his voice, and when matched up with the intensity of his band, the music they create starts a roaring fire of evocative tones that will only grow stronger in the next couple of minutes (especially with the help of a few of Elton John’s current band members).
“Merry Christmas in Heaven” isn’t all about its velvety verse; on the contrary, I think that there’s as much to be said about the sterling quality of instrumentation here as there is about the vocal, and moreover, the narrative it conveys. All of the different elements in the melody are so carefully woven together that it’s sometimes hard to tell if the brawnier part of the harmony is coming from one end of the spectrum or another. This isn’t because the track is lacking in seamless production stylings (quite the opposite, to be honest), but more due to its perfectly integrated rhythm, which produces a powerful sonic force as strong as any I’ve heard all year long.
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This is one of the more refined songs that I’ve heard from Rob Alexander in his career thus far, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it’s saturated in any sort of plastic faceting. The hook in the chorus is very poppy even without any extra polish, and had it been outfitted with a synthetic filter instead of an electric guitar’s wail, I think it would have been a little too sugary for most audiences. Alexander is good at amalgamating a lot of different parts together to make that perfect seasonal cocktail in “Merry Christmas in Heaven,” and I actually think that more than a few of his peers could stand to learn a thing or two from the methods he employs here.
I wasn’t keeping close tabs on Rob Alexander before hearing this latest release for the first time, but I don’t plan on skipping over any of his future releases at all. He’s got a lot of raw talent that still needs to be shaped a bit more before he can make a play for the international pop hierarchy, but in “Merry Christmas in Heaven,” he issues a formidable holiday single among a market that is littered with a lot of really impressive content this December. His is one of the better standouts that I’ve personally heard lately, and if it gets into steady rotation anywhere in the States right now, it’s going to put him in a great position for the impending New Year.
Cleopatra Patel