A lot of music videos for Christmas songs take us to a familiar scene – a cabin in the woods, covered in snow, with a singer trying to warm by the fireplace – but in her video for “My Grown Up Christmas List,” vocalist Linda Peaches Tavani is keeping things simple by centering the visual scheme on the three most important elements of the song; her, the studio, and the memories that inspired every verse. She doesn’t have to invite a lot of camp or predictable holiday adornments to get her emotional presence across to us, and she rightly does the opposite here.
This arrangement was crafted around the vocal, and with pipes like Tavani’s occupying the spotlight in the mix, why wouldn’t it have been?
Listen to “My Grown Up Christmas List” below
When she starts crooning, it’s hard to keep up with what her backing band is doing in the background; she’s so commanding with her voice, even when she’s taking things a little slow, that trying to contend with her enormity in this performance is next to impossible. Nonetheless, she creates harmonies that advance the passion of the lyrics to us effortlessly, binding together the artistic narrative of the video with the straightforwardness of the poetry all too perfectly.
Christmas can last all year long with a single like this one on the stereo, and as long as Linda Peaches Tavani keeps making music as profoundly intriguing as “My Grown Up Christmas List” is, she’s going to keep having a special place in the hearts of R&B fans all over the country. She doesn’t force a lot of heady experimentation on us in this release but instead maintains a simplistic foundation that celebrates the fundamentals of what good melodic pop should consist of. It’s a brilliant offering, and one I’ll have on my holiday soundtrack every year from now on.
