CHRISTMAS THROUGH YOUR EYES

I rather enjoyed Paul Cusick's debut Focal Point, so when I read he had pulled off a Christmas song, I was intrigued and had to check it out. "Christmas Through Your Eyes" has a happy, wandering-the-mall-and-shuffling-through-the-crowds tone with Paul Cusick's deep voice singing a resonating, Pink Floyd-like melody. The chorus has thick harmonies and is very catchy. However, the middle section captures the promised dark element of the song, as Cusick himself describes, what other time of year do we tell children that a strange, bearded man is coming down the chimney in the middle of the night? In that regard, it operates as a dark, twisted piece despite it largely being generally lighthearted. The artwork itself belies the otherwise cheerful, holiday mood (look at Santa's bag for a second). Musically, this isn't anything great, nor is there a lot going on instrumentally- it isn't even a progressive rock song, but this isn't meant to be any of those things. In any event, it was free to listen to and enjoy. This is a really weird composition and probably not something I'd settle down to for the holidays (for me, that would be songs like "The Rebel Jesus" and music from The Charlie Brown Chrismas Special; I'm also big on Alabama's Christmas, which was something of a tradition in my home growing up).