Shane and Shane

The weather hit a sudden low today here in Oregon, and the chill nipped hard around me as I walked across my university campus. I shivered and pulled my scarf tighter around my neck, fumbling with my iPod as I walked. I selected Shane and Shane’s latest Christmas album…and as I listened I didn’t notice the cold. The soothing music made it feel like Christmas . Suddenly I wanted sugar cookies and a twinkling pine tree (what I GOT was another morning working out calculus problems…). Haven’t heard of Shane and Shane? They are perhaps one of the best kept secrets in Christian music.

Composed of Shane Barnard and Shane Everett, the acoustic duo belts out a diverse ten tracks on this album, each one raising the Christmas music standard slightly higher. I found myself listening eagerly, because these two threw in some excellent surprises. For example, opener is “O Holy Night”, equipped with a new, faster tempo that eases it comfortably into a perfect debut track. The second track is a lesiurely, deliberate version of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”, where the crooning of the two Shane’s sails the track straight through to inspiring. “Away in the Manger” is another restyled classic, with a country-style update and a cheery chorus. “It’s Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas” is anchored by a crisp intonation and guest vocalist Bethany Dillon (Barnard’s wife), whose elegant vocal gears the track towards nostalgic.

“Born to Die” is where we finally see that Shane and Shane are equally gifted at Christmas songwriting. Lyrically, it is moving, offering a deep theological message wrapped in a lovely acoustic package, with lines like “When the Babe was born, in a manger on the hay / God saw a veil torn, He saw Good Friday / He was born to die / Gold laid before the Christ…there to signify victory o’er death’s sting / He was born to die”. This weighty song is followed by one of the most beautiful covers of “Silent Night” I have ever heard, with a graceful string section. I know, I have you thinking this album is just about perfect, right? Not quite. The duo seems to suffer a lapse of judgment with “White Christmas”, where the arrangement plods along at a tortuous pace. I might have even fallen asleep mid way….

They evidently recovered their decision-making faculties by integrating their aptly named song “Holiday” from their 2007 inpop release, Pages, and the harmonies here are flawless. Truly breathtaking. It is a brilliant move to place this previously recorded song here, and it (thankfully) avoids feeling requisite. It soars easily through to the sweet title cut, “Glory in the Highest”, where Shane and Shane hit the true high note of the album, where just the right amount of acoustic fusion falls to the background, shoving the yearning vocals to their rightful forefront. The curtain falls with final song “O Come Let Us Adore Him”, whose simple arrangement nicely ends a truly great Christmas album.

I still could be listening when the weather turns sunny once again.

Tagged as: Glory in the Highest, Shane and Shane

↓ One comment

#1 Clay on October 13th, 2008 at 2:29 am

I don’t know if I could have put this album into better words.

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