Customer Reviews

Christmas Offerings

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Third Day has released a great Christmas project. As with the first two "Offerings" CD's, this one mixes both live tracks and studio recordings. The live tracks feature very little talking, but the audience is obviously present. They hold up well to repeated listening.

Third Day has taken nine familiar Christmas carols and arranged them to fit their Southern Rock style. If this scares you, don't let it. Each song is still instantly recognizable, and I had no problem singing along on the first listen. While it sounds slightly different, it felt like Christmas to me. Of course, part of making it a Third Day song is lead singer Mac Powell's trademark deep voice.

"What Child is this?" is easily one of my favorite Christmas carols and their version is great. It starts with just acoustic guitar, but builds until the final chorus. By that point, the full band is playing and it has become a driving rock ballad. I also like the fact that they use a little known verse for their second verse.

They do a similar arrangement with "Do You Here What I Hear?" It flat out rocks by the final verse. I absolutely love it, as does the live audience.

While they speed up "O Holy Night" slightly (it works well as a rock ballad), they keep "Silent Night" slow. In fact, they have a nice violin intro on that song.

Since I have quite a Christmas music library, I always pay special attention to the new songs. Here, there are four of them. Three of them are great. "Born in Bethlehem" is a mid-tempo praise song to the Baby Jesus, while "Jesus, Light of the World" has a similar theme. "Christmas Like a Child" speaks of the longing to recapture the joy of Christmas. Not the longing for presents, but remembering that the season is ultimately about Jesus.

Which brings us to the final song. "Merry Christmas" is yet another in a long line of potentially depressing Christmas songs. Band member Brad Avery's real life wait to adopt a girl from China inspires it. While the final verse does have a happy resolution, I find the first two verses very sad. I will be skipping this track most of the time.

Still, this one track is not enough to ruin the CD overall. By putting their own sound on classic carols, Third Day has created a Christmas Offering I will look forward to listening to year after year.

I was fortunate enough to see Third Day in concert in Bethlehem, PA. I was even more fortunate to hear them play one of their new Christmas songs LIVE for the first time- it was very fitting, as well: they played Born in Bethlehem. This song is the stand-out of this album, which is full of one great song after another. I am glad they stuck with "proper" Christmas songs and didn't slide Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Jolly Old Saint Nicholas in there.
The version of Silent Night is also particularly memorable, featuring a lovely guitar, which is the way this song was written. Beautiful! Brad Avery's Merry Christmas, the last and most poignant of the songs, is a real tear-jerker, as he writes for his little adopted Chinese daughter that he is waiting to bring home! Unbelievably sweet.
The weakest song is Christmas Like a Child, which is just dull. Not overly horrible or anything, but I could take it or leave it. The standards are all very well done, and they have that special touch that only Mac Powell can provide with that voice of his. If you are a Third Day fan, you MUST own this album. If you are simply looking for a great Christmas album that focuses on the REAL reason for the season- this is that album.

Let me tell you, I LOVE Christmas music. However, I'm very picky about my Christmas music. I love the hymns and traditional songs related to the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus. This album is a full album of my type of Christmas music. There are no songs of Rudolph or elves, but a glorious Christmas themed worship album about the Birth of Jesus.

Thank you Third Day for the great Christmas cd.

It's difficult to to do a rock album of Holiday songs. It's even harder to do one of traditional Christmas Carols-but here you have it. 'O Holy Night' is rarely done with more passion, and 'Joy to the World' is almost as moving. Lead singer Mac Powell reminds me of BS&T's David Clayton-Thomas, and shows some writing talent on 'Born in Bethlehem'. Some of the tracks are live-- which I don't personally care for-- but otherwise this is an excellent production of good southern Rock-N-Roll with a joyous message.

Christmas Offerings is a pleasing and energetic album. It contains several traditional Christmas songs with a modern, Southern rock touch. Additionally, it has four original Third Day Christmas songs.

The remakes of Christmas staples are very good. In fact, they are some of the best versions of them that I have heard. Mac Powell's distinctive voice and the energetic instrumentals of Third Day are a real plus.

If you want to have a very enjoyable Christmas album, this would be a good one to get.

This is an album that almost every big name christian artist is bound to release. That fact could have really hurt this album, except Third Day does it the best. Any fan of Third Day (and Christmas Music) will love this album. One thing keeps it for being perfect.... the origianl content isn't all that great. The songs that Mac or other members of the band, wrote are just generic or boring. With that said the track O Holy Night is the best version of that song and is worth the price of admission alone.

It is that time of the year when we all pull out our old Christmas albums and enjoy the classics. Here is the new classic! I will admit that I am biased and love Third Day but their renditions of songs like "What Child is this?" are truly amazing. My favorite song, however, is "Born in Bethlehem"... I listened to it about 15 times straight it is so good! This is a great CD to pop into your player and enjoy over a warm cup of hot chocolate!

You will not be disappointed. For all the Third Day fans this is the perfect Christmas album. I prefer their worship music acoustic style and this is what Christmas music is all about. Love it!!

I like the variety of songs. One of my new favorite albums. My family enjoyed adding it to our Christmas music library.

This was our choice to add to our Christmas album collection this year. Great choice. The songs are very well done. Mac Powell has a voice like no other. It is different than all of our other albums. Pick it up.