The holidays just wouldn’t be the holidays without the music that we’ve all come to associate with that very first snow of the season, and this year Dianña delivers a landmark performance in her new classic “Missing You Underneath the Mistletoe.” The spirit of Christmas music can be found in virtually every corner of pop culture at this time of year, and this season Dianña’s song makes its way to the soundtracks of stores and malls across America to remind everyone of what the holiday is truly all about.
With a melodic wit and wisdom that has become her trademark, she offers us a classic tone and gives it the modern makeover it deserves.
Dianña doesn’t try to completely redesign the model for Christmas music with “Missing You Underneath the Mistletoe” but instead stylizes it with a countrified vocal that fits with the energy of the song perfectly. She channels the old school in the chorus, swaying against the beat of the music with an endearing harmony that is as alluring as a roaring fire on an icy winter evening. The mix shaves down any rough edges the percussion might have created and makes everything flow so smoothly that half the time it’s hard to tell where the band’s melody starts and that of the vocal begins.
The piano and its adjoining elements aren’t messily compressed and smashed into each other in the production; they’re delicately layered in a manner that lets us appreciate their contributions to the glory of the song. Like unwrapping a present, we peel away the sonic ribbonry that softens the highbrow country packaging to find an ethereal melodicism buried where we would least expect it – between the hollow percussion and the vocals.
“Missing You Underneath the Mistletoe” might be a black-and-white seasonal song on paper, but in this format, it’s a symphony of cerebral sounds merging to create a singular tour de force.
From the very second she starts to serenade us to the moment that the track stops and the music fades into darkness we’re powerlessly spellbound by Dianña’s vocal, which is quite possibly more polished and robust here than it has been in her previously recorded material. The substance of this track, like all Christmas music, is the mood that it sets regardless of the venue that it’s played in, and instead of trying to recycle the mood that others have projected with the words she conjures up something fresh and original out of its stylish grooves. If that isn’t the right way to do a holiday song, I don’t know what is.
She’s proven time and time again that she’s an ace in the studio, and with the release of “Missing You Underneath the Mistletoe” Dianña demonstrates that there isn’t a corner of the pop lexicon that she isn’t capable of understanding, adapting and reproducing with wildly evocative results. Alongside a low-key, rustic-inspired music video for the single, this track elevates her persona to new heights within the industry and solidifies her reputation as a knockout performer and versatile recording artist, which is something that Christmas songs (especially those of the so-called “theme” persuasion) aren’t typically known for doing.
