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).

The last few weeks leading up to Christmas has always stood as rather testing times for me as a music lover. Wherever you turn and wherever you go, one track more syrupy and cliched than the other are blarting out of loudspeakers, radios and televisions constantly - too many of which tell embarrasing stories relatdsed to the Coca Cola trademarked Santa Claus where the only aspect more horrible than the dreadful lyrics are the truly horrible music.

True enough, there is good Christmas music out there. But much too often it's the cliches that rule, and to get salvation and relief from the horror of it all I'll find my copy of Kevin "Bloody" Wilson's Christmas album for a laugh and some comic relief at the genre.

Cue Paul Cusick.

Progressive artists making Christmas songs have in most cases been among the better ones. And while I personally have always had a soft spot for Jethro Tull's excursions in the field, Cusick's take isn't too shabby either.

Mellow singer/songwriter material with symphonic embellishments, pretty neatly done, and with some darker and thankfully non-jolly tendencies in the second half. Not the most convincing of tunes as far as I'm concerned, but leaps and bounds better than 99% of what shops, the radio and TV torture us with in these last weeks leading up to Christmas.

All in all a well made effort, and a good alternative for a Christmas song with Christmas spirit.

'Christmas Through Your Eyes' - Paul Cusick (Single)

The fact that this is a Christmas track doesn't do much for my appreciation. Much of the holiday music I've heard in my time (especially contemporary holiday music) has sounded very superficial and hollow to my ears, and it's generally not worth listening to at all. However, Paul Cusick did impress me with his debut release 'Focal Point,' so I figured there wouldn't be too much harm in checking this song out.

The song itself is fairly well written, with a very catchy chorus. However, the whole thing sounds just a bit cheesy; not helped by the fact there are horn sections towards the end and whimsical synth melodies sprinkled throughout.

In terms of the actual music and performance, I would have to agree that the song sounds a bit like Pink Floyd, or even Porcupine Tree. However, there is a really optimistic tone here, making the song alot more cheery than one might be used to from an atmospheric rock artist. A decent song with a cheesy message behind it.