December 25, 2013
Merry Christmas to everyone! Here’s a late album review of EXO’s Miracles in December.
EXO has had an extremely busy year with first Wolf, then repackaged Growl and now a christmas gift for their fans Miracles in December. (Though I’d like to think it as SM-making-us-think-its-a-christmas-present-but-its-just-more-money-for-them).
Miracles of December is a mini album, with 6 tracks including the orchestral version of the title track, Miracles in December. It is a pretty solid mini album, mostly ballads, showing off the vocal talents in EXO. All of my EXO bias aside, this album basically proved that under all that choreography and howling and growling, EXO is also able to deliver soulful performances as well.
Miracles in December
The title track in this album is sang by the vocal line, (Baekhyun, Chen, D.O for Korean and Baekhyun, Chen, Luhan for Chinese). This song is definitely my favourite in the entire album, and it deserves all the hype it is getting. The song builds up and explodes into a gorgeous mess of beautiful instrumental and flawless vocals. The harmonization is beautiful and goosebumps inducing, and these 4 vocalists do deliver the perfect sad song in Christmas. Stunning masterpiece from EXO.
Christmas Day
Christmas Day follows after Miracles in December and it is a sweet track that describes the girl as Christmas Day, telling her that "you're just like Christmas Day". The song starts off with a slow, slick beat and towards the chorus, the song takes a turn and becomes a soft, gentle love song. I personally think this is the most christmasy track on this album, with the choir-like background vocals in the chorus and the actual mention of Christmas. A stellar track as well, and EXO does life performances of this song, making it a lot better than it already is. Check the performance out!
The Star
The album picks up pace from the previous two tracks with The Star, which features a little more of EXO's rappers.This is a pleasant change from the slow moving ballads. Though not very christmasy, it does fit in nicely with the album and according to EXO themselves, the star in the song is actually a girl and she's described to be the star on top of the Christmas tree, so I guess it makes sense. And props to SM, for finally having a rap sequence in English that actually makes sense. Well done.
My Turn To Cry
My Turn To Cry brings the album back to the smooth ballad side with melancholic lyrics and soft vocals. I do think this is a continuation from EXO's previous song, Baby Don't Cry. The twinkling throughout the song adds a nice touch to the song and the soft echo-y vocals gives it a nice holiday feel. The slight pauses between verses is also nice and allows the vocals to set in beautifully.
First Snow
The last track on this album is First Snow, which is a sad song disguised under the merry tune to it. The song starts off slowly, leading up to a more upbeat chorus. One of my favourites as well, First Snow is addicting and the distinctive chimes of bells make this a very suitable song for Christmas, if you overlook the lyrics. Great example of a pop-ballad done right.
Miracles in December is probably one of the most well-produced album EXO has had so far, with the songs all fitting in nicely with each other and centered around the Christmas concept. I can tell you for sure this entire album is a hit in Korea, as it was played on loop everywhere during my trip to Korea this month. I don't know about you, but for me, this album is going to be on replay for the rest holiday season.
Christmas Day is a beautiful song. EXO has mastered the R&B sound and the soulfulness that that song exuded was pure perfection.
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