Weekends can be booked with parties evenings are often spent doing shopping or preparing. As the year starts to wind down, things seem to move faster and faster, and it’s easy to let that rush get the best of you. The quiet piano, the beautiful lyrics, the simple message: it all makes me remember what I love about this time of the year without being saccharine.Īfter all, there's nothing simple about the holidays. But she urged me to listen to it… and I fell in love. When my friend introduced me to “ The Atheist Christmas Carol” a few years ago, I rolled my eyes. Maybe that’s why my favorite Christmas songs are about how it feels to be out of sync with others.
Vienna teng atheist christmas carol tv#
While TV and movies would depict the holidays as a cozy time for families to snuggle up and watch the snow while decorating their homes, I usually found it hard to get in the Christmas spirit. I grew up in Southern California, where December rarely gets below a crisp 45° and the outdoor malls put colored lights on the palm trees. “ The Atheist Christmas Carol” by Vienna Teng Where hope is currency and death is not the last unknown With Warm Strangers, Vienna Teng has taken a confident step forward to create a set of songs that are sharper, deeper, and even more enchanting than her debut, proving that her talent and music are worthy of the accolades that continue to stack up around her.“It's the season of possible miracle cures Also noteworthy is a hidden bonus track whose lullaby-like melody, sung in Chinese, is a mesmerizing blend of Western pop music and Eastern language. The disc starts to meander in the second half, but there are enough interesting moments to keep it from wandering too far off-track, such as the ghostly, a cappella "Passage," in which Teng embodies the spirit of a car accident victim who observes the grieving loved ones she left behind. Simple enhancements like the solo trumpet in "Mission Street," or the strummed piano strings in the disc's majestic centerpiece, "My Medea," keep the songs moving forward without distracting from Teng's vocal and instrumental proficiency. Although Teng's piano still drives most of the songs, the accompanying arrangements are inventive yet unobtrusive.
These diversions help bring more definition to each song, allowing plaintive ballads like "Shine" and "Homecoming (Walter's Song)" to be more memorable and affective than if they were sequenced together. Soothing sea winds are practically felt in the jubilant "Harbor," while the lilting "Shasta (Carrie's Song)" is quite possibly the most musically cheerful song ever written about a trip to an abortion clinic. Breaking the surface with the uneasy strains of "Feather Moon," Teng takes command with a quiet intensity that immediately bests anything from her debut, as her haunting voice beckons to "breathe in, breathe out," bringing to mind Kate Bush's equally spooky "Breathing." Unlike her debut's quiet meditations that tended to bleed into each other, Teng gets positively upbeat on several tracks.
This may have proven to be a blessing in disguise, as her follow-up disc, Warm Strangers, displays the confidence of a burgeoning artist who had gotten her feet wet and has now plunged headlong into a pool of sparkling songs. But after the dust of praise finally settled, Waking Hour appeared slightly fragile in retrospect, with songs that were a bit too precious and self-conscious. Coming out at a time when plucky, piano-banging youngsters like Vanessa Carlton were upstaging their more reflective predecessors like Sarah McLachlan, Teng's songs kicked up a little wind for all sensitive singer/songwriters. It was easy to heap accolades on Vienna Teng's debut recording, Waking Hour, and its impeccable set of songs that overflowed with intelligence and sensitivity.
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