Everyday Is Christmas beats the usual yuletide fare
There’s no better way to kick off the holiday season than with a brand new Christmas album by a chart-topping pop artist. Everyday Is Christmas is Sia’s first release on Atlantic Records and although the album was criticized by “Grammar Nazis” for its title (“Everyday” should be “Every Day”), few can deny that, musically, it stands out in comparison with other pop Christmas albums in recent years.
Sia takes a rare approach to the typical Christmas album with her tracklist consisting of 10 original songs and not a single cover of a Christmas classic. It’s a risky but admirable feature of this project. With this album, Sia really just does Sia.She employs many of the same features that she does in her other pop hits: for example, the use of object writing, a style of songwriting where you take an object, emotion, word, or phrase and focus on it using all your senses to write. This is how her hit song “Chandelier” was written and, it seems, how many of the songs on this album were written as well. Songs like “Snowman” and “Snowflake” are great illustrations of this where Sia takes simple objects associated with Christmas and writes beautiful emotional ballads to make you think about them in a way you never have.Everyday Is Christmas isn’t only filled with emotional ballads though. The album’s first single, “Santa’s Coming For Us,” is a jovial track that sounds modern and fresh while still feeling like a Christmas classic, combining Sia’s reputable rhythmic vocal riffs with sleigh bells and a vibrant brass section.
Overall the album presents a perfect mix of holiday cheer, while acknowledging the fact that the holiday season isn’t always peaches and cream. There’s something for everyone on this album, from joyful, finger-snapping, head-swinging tracks like “Candy Cane Lane” and “Puppies Are Forever,” to haunting ballads like the title-track and “Underneath the Christmas Lights.” There’s even a misfit anthem called “Ho Ho Ho.” I think it’s safe to say that Sia has delivered yet another album we can’t ignore.
Everyday Is Christmas is out now via Atlantic.
Photo courtesy of Sia