The Gift

The Gift

Jim Brickman

Windham Hill Records, 1997

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/22/2001

There's something a little disconcerting about listening to aChristmas album on the first day of fall... but we won't go intothat right now.

There's also something disconcerting about listening to a newage Christmas album like The Gift from Jim Brickman. You see, each person has theirown idea of what proper Christmas music is. As a child, my view ofChristmas music was the Harry Simeone Chorale and the music boxesof the late Rita Ford. As I grew older, I found myself enthralledwith the Winter's Solstice discs from Windham Hill, showing just howbeautiful both Christmas and new age music could be.

So, what's disconcerting about The Gift? It's just that, whether it's fair or not, I findmyself holding this album up in comparison to the first two Winter's Solstice discs. Thankfully, Brickman has crafted analbum which holds its own quite well.

The first release from the romantic pianist to feature vocals onmore than one track, The Gift takes both old standbys and new compositions tocreate a holiday album that tries to do something that mostChristmas albums don't: it aims for the emotional side ofChristmas. "Starbright" brought back memories of when I first heard"Tiny Angels" from Roger Whittaker, and it can easily bring alistener to tears as they remember the nervous anticipationchildren have on the night before Christmas. It's an incrediblypowerful piece of music that still moves me - even though, as thisis written, there isn't a Christmas decoration to be seen in myhouse. And if you want a song that captures the optimistic mood ofhumanity, just listen once to "Hope Is Born Again". There's a lotyou can take from this song... and I'll leave it up to the listenerto find their own message.