RCA Records
Release Date: October 20th 2023
Reviewed by: Joshua Andre
Pentatonix– The Greatest Christmas Hits (with original albums) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)
Track Listing:
- 12 Days Of Christmas (We Need A Little Christmas)
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (A Pentatonix Christmas)
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (That’s Christmas To Me)
- Hallelujah (A Pentatonix Christmas)
- That’s Christmas To Me (That’s Christmas To Me)
- Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy (That’s Christmas To Me)
- Mary, Did You Know? (That’s Christmas To Me)
- Little Drummer Boy (PTXmas (Deluxe Edition))
- White Winter Hymnal (Fleet Foxes Cover) (That’s Christmas To Me)
- Carol Of The Bells (PTXmas (Deluxe Edition))
- Deck The Halls (A Pentatonix Christmas)
- O Come, All Ye Faithful (A Pentatonix Christmas)
- Frosty the Snowman (feat. Alessia Cara) (Evergreen)
- Kid On Christmas (feat. Meghan Trainor) (Holidays Around The World)
- Up On The Housetop (A Pentatonix Christmas)
- Thank You (We Need A Little Christmas)
- Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) (We Need A Little Christmas)
- Grown-Up Christmas List (feat. Kelly Clarkson) (Christmas Is Here!)
- Winter Wonderland / Don’t Worry Be Happy (feat. Tori Kelly) (That’s Christmas To Me)
- You’re A Mean One, Mr Grinch (The Best Of Pentatonix Christmas)
- Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (A Pentatonix Christmas)
- How Great Thou Art (feat. Jennifer Hudson) (A Pentatonix Christmas)
- Joyful, Joyful (feat. Jazmine Sullivan) (The Best Of Pentatonix Christmas)
- O Holy Night (NEW)
- Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (NEW)
- Pure Imagination / Christmas Time Is Here (NEW)
- Please Santa Please (NEW)
- O Little Town Of Bethlehem (feat. Elvis Presley) (NEW)
- Kiss From A Rose (NEW)
- Children Go Where I Send Thee (NEW)
- Little Toy Trains (NEW)
Acapella has probably been, most likely is, and definitely will be, one of the most skilful and equally impressive crafts to master- in the music industry. What I believe is that with determination and with effort and with time; anyone can play the piano, guitar, or drums. And anyone can sing, with the right tutelage and determination. I reckon these talents can be taught and learnt. But acapella- making instrumental noises with your mouth and have it sound good, sound professional, sound album worthy… well that’s another level of brilliance in and of itself. As a site, there haven’t been that many acapella artists that have captured our attention and impressed us greatly. Apart from Peter Hollens (whom we blogged about here) and Pentatonix (who we blogged about here), I’d say that acapella genre of artists who are popular, respected and are either influential or becoming influential is rather bare. But for me, it only takes one artist or a couple of artists for me to fully enjoy and appreciate a genre. And for the specific genre of acapella, I have thoroughly enjoyed the discographies or both Peter Hollens and Pentatonix. There’s something about music that is different that captures your attention and imagination; and can make you feel emotions beyond your capabilities and comprehension. And that is what these artists have invoked in me over the years. But while Peter hasn’t released a full-length album since Legendary Covers Vol. 2: Inspire in October 2020; Pentatonix on the other hand have been chugging along and have benefited the genre of acapella music through their latest studio all-original album The Lucky Ones. Released in February 2021 (as a standard edition and as a deluxe edition), we reviewed the album here and here, and greatly praised the ingenuity, creativity, heart and soul. I think we even gave it an almost perfect score.
Anyway, here we are in December 2023, around about 2 years later. The world is at long last opening up more, even though there are rumours of another Covid wave happening soon. It’s the holiday season, people should be happy, we all should be in the Christmas spirit, putting up our tree, listening to carols and celebrating Jesus’ birth. Yet people are nonetheless crying out for help, for hope, for inspiration, for comfort and for reassurance. Well, what if I told you that hope, and help can through the form of Pentatonix and their latest album- the Greatest Christmas Hits? Yes, indeed, these guys are back with a brand-new Christmas album (can it really be anything else?). Pentatonix (comprising of Scott, Mitch, Kirstin, Matt and Kevin), at this stage, are the reigning champions of powerful, emotive, vulnerable and honest Christmas albums (with these guys having already recorded 6 full length Christmas albums prior to this one- Holidays Around The World, Evergreen, We Need A Little Christmas, Christmas Is Here!, A Pentatonix Christmas, and That’s Christmas To Me); and when you listen to these albums, and read our reviews of Pentatonix Christmas albums here, here, here and here, and read Jon’s blog about them as well; well then I guess you will all understand and grasp the power and inspiration we all can feel, just from listening to a Christmas song from the kings and queens of acapella!
Since their inception as a group, Pentatonix have created many, many Christmas albums (a total of 6 Christmas albums, 1 Christmas EP and 1 greatest hits Christmas album), and one more may sound quite overkill. And so, before I voice my thoughts on The Greatest Christmas Hits, let me just say this. I’ve reviewed so many Christmas albums over the past few years, and nowadays, it becomes almost immaterial to review Christmas albums these days- as you hear more often than not the same Christmas carols redone (“Silent Night” for one!), the same holiday songs redone (“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”?), and a few originals that are generally ok, but not that engaging or memorable. That seems to be the template on most Christmas albums… and you’d think that after releasing 6 Christmas albums, Pentatonix could follow suit. I mean, they would be tired of the genre, right? And thus, this album would be something that would require not much in-depth analysis. But contrary to what we all might think, or groan to ourselves, or complain out loud to our friends and family, The Greatest Christmas Hits, as a package and as a collection of holiday songs, is bound to bring a smile to your faces, and have cleverly and skilfully recorded original Christmas songs, traditional holiday songs, and other obscure melodies, to create a positive, optimistic, cheerful and joyous holiday themed album that should be one of the first Christmas albums that we all should dive deep into this year. And of course… these guys also include some songs that aren’t Christmas songs anyway, but they Christmas-fy them anyway and guess what? They all turn out pretty awesome, I reckon!
With 23 of their biggest Christmas hits (most from their first two Christmas albums, with only one song representative each from Christmas Is Here!, Evergreen and Holidays Around The World, this isn’t a well rounded greatest hits album, and Pentatonix purists would be indignant and adamant about certain inclusions not being present (“God Only Knows”, “Where Are You Christmas?”, “Sweater Weather”, “When You Believe”, “The Prayer”, “My Heart With You”, “Wonderful Christmastime”, “Evergreen”, “It Came Upon The Midnight Clear”, “Little Saint Nick”, “Christmas In Our Hearts”, “Prayers For The World”, “Star On Top”, “Love Came On Christmas”, “Invincible”, “Last Christmas”); however even as a 31 track list (with 8 new melodies), this compilation album is still near-flawless, and the songs present here give us such food for the soul, with The Holy Spirit inhabiting these melodies, and drawing us all closer to Jesus and the reason for the season. “O Holy Night” is my favourite carol of all, and each of the members do this song justice and then some, while “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” (a remix of Elvis Presley’s previous hit recording!) and “Children Go Where I Send Thee” are all Pentatonix at their best. As usual, a couple of non-Christmas songs find their way onto the ‘original’ part of this greatest hits compilation (Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose” and “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka And the Chocolate Factory), and at this point, I don’t care that these are not Christmas songs, because their objectively and subjectively quite brilliant and exquisite; while the obscure “Little Toy Trains” isn’t well-known to me, but is still a soothing and calming melody about encouraging a little child to go to bed before Santa can give him his present on Christmas Eve. “Please Santa Please”, the final ‘new’ track, is an original melody, entirely led by Kirstin, and thematically is about the persona wishing and praying to Santa to make their dreams come true this Christmas; and reminds me that Pentatonix are still a force to be reckoned with and will still be around for many years to come.
So there you have it. 100 minutes of sheer musical genius and a compilation album that is well and truly for the ages. Never mind that Pentatonix have recorded 6 previous Christmas albums… the Greatest Christmas Hits proves that there’s more for these guys to mine within the confines of the Christmas genre. This release is captivating and powerful as the quintet delve into the Christmas season with professionalism, heart, joyfulness and a sense of reflection that I have not seen and heard for many, many years. The Christmas story is timeless, and though there are more holiday songs that I probably would’ve preferred on this release, other worshipful melodies like “O Holy Night”, “Joyful Joyful”, “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)”, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “How Great Thou Art” remind us that God is working all the time- we just need to sometimes sit up and take more notice. Pentatonix and The Greatest Christmas Hits do not overtly scream out the immutable truth of Jesus from the rooftops; but the truth is in fact still on display here- of Jesus being born into the world as fully man and fully God, and born to save us all from ourselves. What greater truth do we need this Christmas? So let us sit back and marvel at the wonder of how great Pentatonix is as a group… but more than that let us pray that God continues to work in us and changes us from the inside out. What better way to do that than against the backdrop of one of the most powerful and exquisite Christmas compilation collections of the year? Well done, Pentatonix; Kirstin, Matt, Mitch, Scott and Kevin should be proud of themselves, and I cannot wait for the next all new original studio album, whenever that may be!
8 songs to listen to: Hallelujah, Thank You, Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), Grown Up Christmas List, Joyful Joyful, O Holy Night, Please Santa Please, Kiss From A Rose
Score: 4.5/5
RIYL: Little Mix, Tauren Wells, Peter Hollens, Hollyn, Carly Rae Jepsen