A Sojourn staffer takes on the challenge of listening to Justin Beiber’s new Christmas CD track-by-track.

Going into this piece, I was challenged to rid my mind of all the biases I had against Justin Bieber. Really, I’d never heard a complete song by the artist until listening to his Christmas album. The only thing I could hold against him was the fact that I used to be told I had a “Bieber haircut.”
Anyway, here are my first reactions to Justin Beiber’s Christmas album, “Under The Mistletoe.”

Only Thing I Ever Get for Christmas
Nice little intro with acoustic guitar strumming accompanying Bieber’s voice.
Also, a choir singing “ooohs” in the background. Cue the electronic drums and melismas that lead into the the chorus!
Psychedelic synthesizers add a really cool feel to the bridge. I really wish there were more synthesizers in the entire song and less drum machine.
So many vocal tracks!
Intimate, slow ending with Bieber singing about mistletoe: “I’ll be waiting, kiss me there.”

Mistletoe
Jingle bells count the rhythm, then Jason Mraz-style acoustic guitar and finger-snaps come in.
The lyrics are all about evoking imagery of Christmas.
Bieber keeps singing about things he should be doing, but instead he’s under the mistletoe with “yooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-oou.”
There are some pretty weak lyrics going on here. “Don’t you buy me nothing / ‘cause I am feeling one thing / Your lips on my lips.”
This song may as well be a Christmas cover of Mraz’s “I’m Yours.”

Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Spacey intro of acoustic guitar, piano and some weird-but-awesome synthesizer in the back drenched in reverb.
This is a nice, slow and swanky version of this song. Finger snaps keep the rhythm, again. There is a pretty cool effect on the vocal echoes.
Anytime Bieber sings a high note, the auto tune becomes pretty obvious.
Hey, it’s Usher!
So many harmonies are happening right now.
I can hardly take the male-diva love going on right now.
Holy ‘80s guitar solo, Bieber! This is so cheesy.
I think the production of these songs is really hurting more than helping.

Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
Funk! That is fun.
Bieber shouting, “Santa’s coming, girl! Whoo!”
This is what Christmas music is all about! Having fun and being happy in the season instead of trying to pick up girls!
There’s a choir in the back, a really appropriate organ, and Bieber almost sounds like he’s a member of the band instead of a celebrity who records his vocal tracks at a different time than the other musicians.
Did he just say it’s the time of year to, “Shake it, baby”? I’m not going to let that ruin this song for me.
Fun track.

Fa La La
Electric piano, drum machines and Bieber saying, “This is the time of year we can give it, give it, give it, give it all.”
Boys II Men is serving as Bieber’s backing choir?
The track so auto tuned, but I can’t tell whether or not it’s intentional. It’s kind of like Bon Iver’s “Woods,” except there is a ton of additional instrumentation. There’s a lot of cool counter-rhythms going on, too.
Man, that last little vocal solo was long. Awkward too.
Side note — the a cappella version of this song on the deluxe album is much more rewarding to listen to.

All I Want for Christmas
Strings, French horn and bells are the first thing you hear before Mariah Carey and Bieber enter.
Lots of wordless singing going on here.
Drums come in really strong and Carey begins singing.
This is upbeat! What a relief; I don’t know if I could handle another power ballad.
This is pretty enjoyable.
Wow, that was a really cool soul-infused bridge. Carey does some really cool whistle-tone stuff at the end.

Drummer Boy
Such a dramatic intro.
I feel like I’m trapped in a futuristic Christmas dream. Oh my, cue the dance party.
Bieber’s rapping. It’s not terrible.
What is happening?! Now Busta Rhymes is shouting.
Now Busta Rhymes is rapping. His lyrics are terrible, but there was just a huge swell of synthesizers and everything but his voice and drums dropped out after that.
It sounds really cool, but his lyrics are still lame. He just gave a shout-out to his Twitter followers, haha.
Oh, another chorus, then Bieber raps the last verse about donating to charity and thinking about less fortunate families. A good message? Yes. A good verse for a rap song?
No way, Biebz. That song just blew my mind.

Christmas Eve
Nice, pretty piano introduction. Of course it can’t remain that way.
Drum machines and hand-claps come in after. “I don’t need presents / girl, you’re everything I need.”
Apparently, that message wasn’t delivered enough in the first few songs?
Maybe it’s just because it follows “Drummer Boy,” but that song was painfully boring.

All I Want is You
Two fake intros? Bieber, you jokester. It’s a sappy, lonely winter ballad.
“Sitting here all alone watching the snow fall / looking back at the day we through them snow balls / I can’t believe I’m putting the tree up by myself / I need you and nobody else.”
It’s not bad. It’s pretty much the same idea as the first song on this album, but this song does a much better job of evoking the desperation of missing a loved one.

Home This Christmas
Immediately I can tell this is going to be a country ballad because of the big piano, mid-tempo and twangy country guitar.
The Band Perry’s presence is obvious.
Bieber and the Perrys’ voices compliment each other well. Maybe Bieber should do more country stuff. This is a really solid track.

Silent Night
Just Bieber’s voice and piano.
Pretty and relaxing. I’m really glad the second verse didn’t add any drum machines or other instrumentation. It would have tainted a classic.
In general, this Christmas album wasn’t too bad. There were too many ballads and all the original songs that Bieber helped write were sappy love songs that all revolved around the idea of kissing girls under the mistletoe or only wanting a girl’s love for Christmas. The covers were fun and most of the guest musicians attributed nice variety to the songs.

The Indiana Wesleyan University Orchestra and Chorale will perform George Fredric Handel’s “Messiah” and “Fireworks” Friday and Saturday evening, Dec. 2 and 3 at 7:30 p.m.

First United Methodist Church, 624 S. Adams St. in Marion, will host the performance Friday evening. Saturday evening’s performance will take place in the main auditorium of the Phillippe Performing Arts Center at IWU.

“Fireworks” is a five-movement piece written to be performed during showings of Great Britain’s royal fireworks. It was specifically composed to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la Chapelle, which ended the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748.

After “Fireworks,” the orchestra and Chorale will perform selections from Handel’s “The Messiah,” an oratorio composed in 1741 that tells the story of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection.

Dr. Todd Guy, head of IWU’s Division of Music, will conduct the performance. He said the piece is more difficult for the vocalists than the conductor.

“It’s challenging from the standpoint that it reaches the extreme range of the voice, and Handel asked the performers to sing in the upper tesiturra over long periods of time, so it’s a pretty taxing piece on the voice itself,” said Guy.

The chorus will include about 150 singers, and the orchestra will have 60 or 70 members, according to Guy.

“When you’re standing in front of all that music, and it’s just washing over you, it’s pretty thrilling,” said Guy.

Christa Jones (sr), assistant conductor of Chorale, and Alli Krupp (jr), a member of Chorale and the orchestra, both performed “Messiah” two years ago. Both said they never get tired of rehearsing the piece.

“It’s a Christmas tradition,” Jones explained, “and it’s something that’s been happening for 250 years.”

She said those attending should be excited about “being a participant in the audience, counting it as an act of worship and contemplating the message that’s being told.”

“Handel just knew how to write music. Period. Both for choir and for orchestra,” said Krupp.

Although Dr. Todd Guy will direct the Chorale and Orchestra for “Messiah,” he and Professor Jason Thompson have conducted most of the rehearsals separately. Guy said he enjoys being able to collaborate with another faculty member on this level.

“The nice thing is that [Professor Thompson] and I have collaborated on ‘The Messiah’ about three times, so we kind of each know what the expectation is for one another. What’s neat for me is that Prof. Thompson will be preparing the orchestra, but he’ll also be the concert master,” said Guy.

“It requires perfection to do it correctly, and that can be discouraging because it takes so long to get it right. When you’re singing with a choir of 150 people, it takes a long time to get perfection, but in the end it’s worth it. And that’s probably my favorite part, at the end when we’ve finally worked to polish everything so long and we finally get to present it,” said Jones.

Krupp explained that Guy constantly reminds his performers that the piece isn’t an ordinary work of music.

“Dr. Guy really emphasizes the importance of the work — that we’re singing about God. Even though, at the end of the piece when we’re singing seven pages of just ‘Amen,’ they shouldn’t become just a redundant word. [We’re actually] singing ‘So be it,’ over and over and over again, and there’s importance behind that,” said Krupp.

Newcomer Brave at Sea is making sound waves throughout Indiana Wesleyan University.

Influenced by artists such as Bon Iver, Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers, the three-piece group creates folk-like tunes through an acoustic guitar and layered vocals.

Behind the music, these IWU students are energetic and lively. The trio bickers and banters at a pace that resembles growing up with a sibling. In an interview they talked about brain freezes, their favorite cake and whose grandma will be at Friday Night Live.

“My grandma freaks out about me. She loves our music and is a big supporter. She’ll be at FNL,” said guitarist and vocalist Zach Ihle (jr). The band relies on family, friends and significant others for support while they write and perform.

Brave at Sea’s musical background is as different as their tastes in cake. For the record, vocalist and guitarist Jacob Trego (sr) likes Funfetti cakes while Ihle has enjoyed Dairy Queen ice cream cakes since he was 2 years old.

Pianist and vocalist Elle Kernitz (sr) has played music since she was 5 years old and is classically trained. She aspires to be a female folk singer. Ihle started on the opposite end of the musical spectrum, performing in a metal band throughout high school. Trego taught himself ukelele and last year, the guitar.

Members of Brave at Sea combine their backgrounds to create “Bear” and “Heaven Bound,” two songs listed on the band’s Facebook page. Trego and Kernitz mix their voices to produce rustic harmonies that are enhanced by simple guitar lines.

“Every grandmother that’s heard our music has been, ‘That’s so sweet,’” said Trego. “We get a lot of good, positive feedback. We haven’t heard anything that is derogatory.”

Brave at Sea sees music as a ministry opportunity because it is able to be played at a variety of venues, from coffee shops to churches.

“This is our ministry, we just kind of refocus and reimage what the Bible says so that people can see the Bible in new ways,” said Trego.

The band is currently working on an EP to be released around Christmas. For those that can’t wait until then, two songs are available for download on Brave at Sea’s Facebook page.

Last month, Brave at Sea won IWU’s Battle of the Bands competition and will be featured at Friday Night Live on Friday and Saturday night, followed by a Crema performance next Wednesday.

Before we all started stealing music, there used to be a store in the mall called Sam Goody. It was a magical place where we impulsively spent money on music and movies. If you were anything like me back then, you bought albums by bands to which you’d never even listened. I wasted a lot of money on a lot of terrible music doing that. But every once in a while, a risky music purchase becomes one of your favorite albums. I was a junior in high school when I strolled into Sam Goody and bought Bad Religion’s “The Process of Belief” and I’ve been listening ever since.

Eight years, three albums and three tours later, Bad Religion extends its 30-plus year career with “The Dissent of Man,” its 15th studio album to date. The album starts with the intense-yet-average “The Day the Earth Stalled” and doesn’t slow down for the next two songs. But in the interest of not producing the same album over again, a couple of slower, more relaxed jams creep in around tracks four and five. The toned-down “Won’t Somebody” and “The Devil in Stitches” might cause die-hard fans to search for the next fast song, fearful of a less-edgy Bad Religion. But any band that’s been around for 30 years is eventually going to mature in its songwriting. If you were expecting a rebirth of the “Suffer” era, or even another “New Maps of Hell,” you might be disappointed. The album picks up the pace again with “Wrong Way Kids” and leaves us with more pop-rock fare (“I Won’t Say Anything”).

On the whole, this is still theBad Religion we know and love. Present are the rising three-part harmonies, the fierce tempos and the socially conscious lyrics that fans have come to expect. Strangely absent is the extensive vocabulary typical of previous Bad Religion albums. You won’t find tonguetwisting lyrics like “incipient senescence” or “misanthropic anthropoid.” For the most part, vocalist Greg Graffin opts for a more simplified lyrical approach, as evidenced by the groan-inducing line “Missing you is like kissing cyanide.” Worse yet are the corny storytelling lyrics in “Pride and the Pallor” and the sub-par writing in “Meeting of the Minds” (“Today on my ride / I witnessed a guy”).

Minor hiccups aside, this is a solid album. Some fans will love it; others will lump it with other mediocre Bad Religion releases. If you happen to pick up this album, listen with an open mind. Bad Religion stays true to form while giving us something new.