Under The Mistletoe

Justin Bieber | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 1, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Island
• ASIN: B005NKIQ26
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (160 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,758 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #45 in Music > Miscellaneous > Holiday

Editorial Reviews

2011 holiday release from the global teen pop phenomenon. The album is a seasonal mix of traditional Christmas standards and newly penned holiday music largely co-written by Justin Bieber. Includes 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' (a duet with Mariah Carey), 'Fa La La' (featuring Boyz II Men), 'The Christmas Song' (featuring Usher) and much more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I would have expected a little more not as good as it could have been! December 11, 2012

By bookreader

Format:Audio CD

Before you jump up and buy this album, listen and I mean listen to the samples at least and compare it to any of his other songs and then think about whether I might be right in saying this album was just done to put out an album without much thought or practice behind what was produced. I would skip on this endeavor completely as it is not up to snuff. Seems like Justin Bieber is becoming too distracted to care about what is being produced and now just milking his name for as much time and money as he can. Producing something like this will hasten that down fall all the more quickly.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Bieber is a teeny bopper November 28, 2012

By Rocket707

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

This album is way to poppy. I can see why so many 10 year old girls would love this album.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Non-Traditional November 28, 2011

By Shannon Mccrory

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Interesting album, but I wish there would have been a few more known/traditional songs on the album. Excellent additional artists on the album!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Overall Good CD November 22, 2011

By krh891

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Justin Bieber's voice has changed since the last time I heard one of his songs. I'm 20 years old and purchased this CD. My boyfriend made fun of me and asked if I was 12. Honestly though, I like it a lot. His duet with Mariah Carey is kind of corny, other than that I like the CD.

17 of 24 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Hype Without Substance November 19, 2011

By roe roe

Format:Audio CD

I agree this is not well put together at all. The first two songs I could sit through, but after that it got stale real quick. His voice is so monotone. He needs to learn to change it up a bit. This cd goes on and on in one big pile of rolled notes. Please someone give him voice lessons. The Little Drummer Boy is just awful no other way to put it and Silent Night will never be the same after what he did to it. I bet right now there are so many talented children that could sing circles around Justin. His other work was not bad, but this just out right stinks.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not As Good As Fans Say, Not As Bad As Critics Say November 13, 2011

By Mediaman

Format:Audio CD

This mediocre CD has a couple songs that will probably get played over and over on the radio for the next few holiday seasons, but little else to recommend it. It sounds like he ran into the studio for a couple days and they just took one of the first takes of each, instead of taking the time to put together a really great Christmas album. His "guests" that sing along with him don't do anything other than make you realize how weak the album is (the Drummer Boy rap is pretty bad if not borderline sacrilegious). The Mariah Carey song is pretty much all her and almost none of him--hard to say why it's even on this CD.

Pretty disappointing and not worth buying the whole thing--pick the cuts you like and download those alone. And don't waste extra money on the "deluxe" version--it merely has an a capella version of a song already on the CD, "Pray" which he put out earlier and a terrible rendition of "Someday at Christmastime." (The last song was actually recorded in 2009 and he sang it live on the White House Christmas TV special, so his pitch is much higher and he can't hit all the notes.) This is not the worst Christmas CD ever made but it should have been much better.

23 of 33 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Christmas is cancelled December 18, 2011

By The Curmudgeon

Format:Audio CD

Expectations for music released at, and for, the Christmas period are usually pretty low. It's fair to say that the time of the classic Christmas song is long gone, and few, if any, will ever sit alongside the recognized "canon" of festive standards. When you listen to, say, Phil Spector's seminal, timeless "A Christmas Gift For You" record, you can't imagine any of today's pop goons ever creating anything quite so genuinely joyful. So yeah, it's now all a big "whatever - it's Christmas" shrug. We don't really expect much from today's crop of Christmas tunes.

But, seriously, has it come to this? Are we really so turned off, desensitized and bored with Christmas music that something so horrendous, poorly conceived and downright WRONG as Bieber's "Under the Mistletoe" record can be released and we simply mark it down as yet another Christmas album? The fact that, in the last three weeks both Michael Buble AND X Factor dud and celebrity non-event Joe McElderry have released depressingly similar Christmas albums, and even they sound relatively palatable compared to this monstrous mis-fire.

The whole point of a Christmas record is, surely, to make you warm towards and anticipate the big day. To enjoy spending time with your loved ones and to really get behind the "season of goodwill." Yet the sheer bile that wells up in the soul when simply looking at Bieber's arrogant, hateful face, coupled with his whining, nasally voice, makes you wish for a Santa suicide bomber.

We'll get to the main offender later, but let's deal with the other low quality tracks first. The handful of new songs are all vanilla, instantly forgetful R&B lite dross, all repeating the same eye-rolling cliches ("I heard on the street that Santa Claus is coming to town" - noooo, REALLY, Justin?...) and boring, mundane ballads with as much soul and warmth as an airport departure lounge. Remember when I said new Christmas songs can't hang with the classics? These new songs aren't even on par with "Have a Cheeky Christmas" by the Cheeky Girls.

As for the covers, the puppet masters who pull Bieber's strings have decided to ruin some of the most celebrated Christmas songs of all time. Among them, a turgid, "I'm really feeling the emotion here, honest" snooze-fest cover of Silent Night and an appalling version of "The Christmas Song" that makes you wish that it was only Bieber's chestnuts roasting on an open fire. And what says "Christmas" more than a guest appearance by "talk to my manager and show me the money" Busta Rhymes on "Little Drummer Boy", an atrocious, vulgar track that has Bieber attempting to rap, with knuckle chewing, face-palm worthy lyrics ("Playing for the king, playing for the title, I'm surprised you didn't hear this in the bible"). The fact this music was recorded, released - and that people paid money for it - simply beggars belief.

Anyway, onto the main offender and lead single from the record itself. Arguably the last Christmas song that could sit alongside festive pop standards like Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" and Wham's "Last Christmas", Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is You" remains the only song in her entire career that is of any worth whatsoever. Released in 1994, it remains a Christmas favourite. It's got bags of charm, an irresistible pop hook and is pretty much impossible not to enjoy.

Leave it up to the record labels then, to strip the song of any merit and make it note for note the worst track on an already grim and grisly album.. and Mariah is there for the ride, willfully destroying her own song all in the name of attempting to remain relevant to 12 year old girls. The video has to be seen to be believed; Carey doing her "I can't do anything else" coquettish shtick in a skimpy Santa outfit, now looking like a depressed, crack addicted hooker while Bieber basically shouts over the rest of the song. Yes indeed, nothing says "Christmas time!" like a 41 year old balloon chested skank making sexy eyes at a 17 year old boy. It's absolutely shameful.

Lazy, cheap Christmas cash-in's, where flavour of the month pop morons ruin Christmas songs are nothing new, and they will continue to be made as long as stupid kids and no-nothing parents buy them. Make no mistake - "Under the Mistletoe" could very well be the worst of the lot. If Santa Claus is indeed making a list of who's been naughty and nice, he should surely be heading for Justin Bieber's home with a pair of pliers and a blow torch. Read more ›

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bieber's Best November 16, 2011

By Carissa

Format:Audio CD

Firstly, any review here to pick on this artist is discrediting and very immature. People need to stop picking Bieber apart! He is a talented teenager and a much better role model for our kids than most teens out there.

Anyhow.
This album is not his best. I've listened to his Never Say Never and My World 2.0 extensively and enjoyed them both. Bieber is obviously talented not just with a great voice, but he has charisma, stage presence, and relatability. He has great appeal. His songs in his previous albums really show who he is.

This Christmas album however, fails to do that. It feels like he threw it together rather quickly in order to have it our by Christmas. I really WANTED to like it, but I couldn't. There are a few winners on here, like his single Mistletoe is pretty cute. But his Drummer Boy version is pretty agonizing.

It doesn't feel authentic or original. I'm disappointed by the album, but I wouldn't say it's as bad as many of the reviewers are saying. He just got a little lost it seems. Hopefully whatever he puts out next will be less mediocre than this one.