For Pentatonix, Christmas is heavy on fun, light on faith

Pentatonix, a five member a cappella sensation, made the biggest Christmas music splash this year with a new album that rocketed to the top of the season, That’s Christmas To Me. An effervescent blend of pop, jazz, and hip-hop, Yahoo confirmed it as the highest-ranking Christmas album since 1962 while The Washington Post described the group as “inescapable” due to huge sales and a ubiquitous presence on radio and TV.

The media circus is no surprise to them, however, since they got their start on TV in the 2011 season of NBC’s The Sing-Off. Three of the members had known each other since high school, but the show requires at least four members. So they quickly nabbed two more singers. They found cellist and beatboxer Kevin Olusola on YouTube. All five never actually met and performed together until the day before their audition for the show, which they went on to win.

The album contains a mixed bag of sacred and secular numbers, with the most appealing songs on the secular side. One of the best is a mash-up of “Winter Wonderland” with Bobby McFerrin’s iconic 1980s tune “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” The two songs are wonderfully compatible, with McFerrin’s carefree theme serving as a perfect chorus to the simple pleasures of the Christmas song. Easy-going harmonies glide lazily along a bouncing bass voice, both robust and crisply rhythmic.

Similarly, “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is a musical whirlwind. The singers spit out notes with incredible speed and agility to capture the fairy’s gyrations. The classical arrangement is laced with ethereal effects and hefty vocal electronica that transform the song into an exciting fusion project.

When they turn to sacred matters, however, they become a bit more ham-handed. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” begins staid and traditional until the sound of a record scratch intrudes. Then the song becomes a foot-stomping gospel hoedown complete with soulful moaning and vocal percussion. It feels forced and plain strange. It just doesn’t seem like the angel wants to go there—he’s dragged into the business against his will.

“Mary Did You Know” fares better, with beatific harmonies that plumb the depths of Mary’s wonder and predicament. Yet, this song is also outfitted with annoying and goofy-sounding percussion—a hokey and unsuccessful attempt at updating the song that completely misses the point. Listeners will breathe a sigh of relief at their good sense to leave “Silent Night” well enough alone.

That’s Christmas To Me shows five young people with intelligence and stunning virtuosity. Pentatonix shines in the generic seasonal songs, with creative arrangements that liven up the repertoire with respect and style. Yet the album is light on religious content and even lighter on fervor, all of which is aptly captured by the title track, the group’s only original on the album. With beautifully mellow harmonies, Christmas is summarized by children, dreams, and nostalgia-loaded trinkets, all of which provoke a “Christmas song in my heart / I’ve got candles glowing in the dark / I’m hanging all the stockings by the Christmas tree / … because that’s Christmas to me.” As for faith notions, not a single one is stirring—not even so small as a mouse.