Advent Music: Part Deux

So many standard Christmas songs can be easily written off as boring, cheesy, clunky, all of the above...  I find that going through them and reading the lyrics as if I've never sung them before helps me find the value in them that may have seemed lost over years of repetition and countless renditions by various pop stars.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come. Let earth receive her King...

Even the first couple sentences of this song are enough to give me pause when I take the time to savor each word.  It is time for joy; our Creator, our King, our Love is here.  Like, HERE.  Joy.  Not just happiness that comes and goes with changing circumstance, but joy that lasts through the heartaches we'll still need to suffer as we become who we were made to be.  Joy in the fact that he is here - in the trenches with us.  Joy.

What also helps me tremendously in my quest to renew old songs of Advent to my mind and spirit is creative re-imaginings of these songs.  Last year, I discovered a version of "Joy to the World" done by Future of Forestry, a band out of beautiful San Diego, CA.  It's become my favorite version.  This, like many other traditional Christmas songs, is a grand tune, usually sung to grand, orchestral accompaniment, but this band open with a sparse electrical sound, a bit of a beat, and what I think is a glockenspiel.  Then a simple, solo vocal comes in and is joined by a lone cello (ugh, I LOVE string instruments).  After the first verse, the drummer comes out to play some, and the track is sort of waking up.  As soon as the second verse is finished, we get the kick-drum heartbeat and more strings which lead to a surprise - a few lines of a classic hymn, "All Creatures of Our God and King".  Not normally associated with Christmas, but that doesn't matter, because this suddenly makes all the sense in the world.

Thou burning sun with golden beam, thou silver moon with softer gleam - o praise him.  Hallelujah.

Maybe this is meant as an unpredictable replacement of an original verse that they don't sing:  "Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns... Let men their songs employ while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy."  Even the less animate members of creation acknowledge the Awesome.  Then the song comes to its end with a return to the title lyric and an added admonition:

Joy to the world...
The Lord is come...
REJOICE!

Rejoice.  He's come for us.