Unveiling the Hidden Gem: Meghan Trainor’s Christmas Album of the Decade

October 2020 was a bleak time. 

In case you want a refresher, we had been experiencing a worldwide pandemic and getting ready to have fun our first socially distanced vacation season. Morale was low. We, as a nation, and around the globe wanted a rallying cry, a phoenix to rise from the ashes and ship vacation cheer. 

Enter: Meghan Trainor. 

That’s proper. Within the yr 2020, the golden-haired angel behind hits like “All About That Bass,” “Made You Look,” and “Higher After I’m Dancin’,” gifted us with a musical espresso shot, blended with some boozy eggnog. 

On Oct. 30, 2020, Trainor dropped her Christmas album, A Very Trainor Christmas, and the world as I knew it was ceaselessly modified. Nonetheless, because the years have gone on and we’ve got endured extra collective trauma as a rustic — Labubus, the 6-7 development, unflattering Spotify Wrapped lists, and so forth. — I’ve come to understand that this explicit album actually deserved extra shine on the time and maybe it is not too late to present it some.

Anybody who can craft the lyric, “Why you place me on the naughty listing? Perhaps I used to be too good for ya,” deserves to be given an honorary Grammy award, full with an apology word from the Recording Academy for the truth that this masterpiece wasn’t extensively acknowledged sooner. 

For full disclosure, as a former college refrain and church choir nerd, I’m principally been-there-done-that in relation to conventional Christmas carols. Positive, Clay Aiken’s cowl of “Mary Did You Know,” and Lea Michele’s rendition of “O Holy Evening,” nonetheless give me two armfuls of goosebumps, however for probably the most half, if I by no means heard “Deck the Halls” once more, I’d be simply fantastic. 

So after I inform you that Meghan Trainor has delivered what I’ll now be referring to as “Bop-mas” — by which I imply, practically half the album consists of latest, unique vacation bops — I’m not exaggerating. 

The lady actually has recorded the treatment for Seasonal Affective Dysfunction in 5 unique Christmas jams plus an assortment of covers, if that is extra your factor.

How usually are we complaining that every little thing lately is a reboot, a live-action model, a revival or a sequel? You’re upset about one other Batman, however you haven’t any downside listening to “Angels We Have Heard on Excessive” for the umpteenth time?

Identical to your vacation wishlist, let’s attempt to hold our musical choices recent, fam. 

My private Trainor favorites embody “I Consider in Santa,” “Christmas Celebration,” “My Sort of Current” and “Holidays.” In “Holidays,” Trainor manages to convey the group Earth, Wind & Fireplace out of September and into probably the most fantastic time of the yr. 

Now, why would one of many bestselling bands of all time wish to collaborate along with her? Oh, I don’t know, perhaps as a result of she wrote them a festively hip-shaking observe full with the backing of their legendary trumpet, saxophone, electrical guitar and drums, which some critics in comparison with the group’s greatest hit of all time! No massive deal. 

After all, there are many different good up to date vacation albums. Positive, you’ve received your Michael Bublé followers, and you’ll’t enter a shopping center in America with out listening to not less than one Kelly Clarkson vacation observe. I take no challenge with being wrapped in crimson or hanging out beneath the tree. I don’t try and contest their mistletoe magic.

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I simply don’t assume it’s proper that we’re so caught in our ways in which we are able to’t open our vacation hearts to a brand new sound. It’s 2025, for Oz sake. There’s butter-dipped ice cream and in case you flip Madame Morrible round, you get Depraved Witch. Let’s lengthen that very same winter surprise to a pop star so dedicated to vacation magic she actually embellished her face in miniature bows. What extra do you folks need from her?! 

And if this one vacation album isn’t sufficient for Trainor to steal the crown, enable me to (very cautiously and respectfully) clarify one thing. 

It has been greater than 30 years since Mariah Carey launched her seasonal seminal traditional, “All I Need for Christmas Is You,” and whereas this music is certainly worthy of all of the love and countless replayings, I don’t assume one observe essentially makes Mimi the uncontested “Queen of Christmas” in perpetuity. 

Now as I disguise beneath my synthetic tree awaiting the Lambs’ yuletide slaughter, let me additionally add that Trainor didn’t simply cease with A Very Trainor Christmas. 

In truth, this Spy Children-marrying legend simply dropped a model new Christmas observe referred to as, “Items for Me” final month. It’s basically Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” for the vacation season. It’s an anthem for anybody who’s ever been dissatisfied on Christmas morning as they’re opening yet one more turtleneck or no matter outsized water vessel was common 5 years in the past. 

“’Trigger I made an inventory, however no one checked it / I made a want that you simply may get it proper / However in case you do not, and I see one thing that I like / This yr I am shopping for items for me,” she sings. 

Aside from the truth that we must always ditch Daylight Saving Time for good, there’s little or no that we as a collective can agree on, however the message of “deal with yo self”— particularly at the moment of yr — ought to be a type of issues. 

Basically, Meghan Trainor is the proper particular person to convey our divided nation collectively at this most pivotal time of yr. Be it a Grammy or a Nobel Peace Prize, the girl deserves her flowers. And whereas she will purchase them for herself, her vacation discography proves she shouldn’t need to.