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Video Spotlight: Home for the Holidays by ECHO

In getting ready to write this, I had to chuckle at how Christmasy November turned out what with all the Christmas albums I ended up reviewing. This, from a person who usually prefers to only listen to Christmas music in December. Yet here we are about midway through December and none of the posts so far this month have had anything to do with Christmas. Time to remedy that, I think. What better way to do so by saving ECHO's Christmas for the end of our little ECHO trilogy? The first two installments are right below this one on the main page. But if you're feeling lazy, the first installment about their album can be found here and the ECHO mishmash can be found here.

"Home for the Holidays" is a beautiful medley. The perfect medley to bring us back to Christmas, if you ask me. So how about we get right to it?




I did a run through of the lineup in my review of their album, but it occurred to me that it'd be a good idea to put a face to each of the names. This video is a good way to do that. Standing in the back, you have Bryce Larsen on the left and Dan Reynolds on the right. Sitting down, you have Erik Winger on the far left with Deejay Young right next to him. Antonio Fernandez is next, which leaves E.J. Cardona on the far right. See? Isn't it better when you know which one is which?

As I've often said, it all starts with the arrangement and this one was done by Erik. If he keeps doing things like this, he's going to find himself among my favorite arrangers. Shoot, he might be there already. I love the way he put this all together. It's a beautiful piece of music. These are the kinds of things that make me want to learn how to arrange music. Or at least make an attempt to do so. The songs aren't just shoved together like so many mashups and medleys can be. They just fit together nicely.

Something else I really like about this video is that not only does it help match a face to a name, it also helps put a voice to that name as well. I'll be honest and admit that it can take me a while to get everyone's voices in my head. Until I get to the point where I know who is singing what just by listening. What's funny about this is once I get it, I usually end up wondering how I could ever get mixed up. Please, someone tell me that I'm not the only one.

As much as I enjoy ECHO's energy as a group, it's great to hear them sing something like this. It's a gentler sounding ECHO. Their harmonies are so beautiful in this. Beautiful, but still interesting. They don't always go the way you'd expect them too and I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. I like the way they went with the video, mixing the shots of them all together with the home movies and pictures. It makes for such a sweet video. One that suits the music perfectly. I also like when groups pick some kind of color scheme like they did with everyone in shades of red and black/gray. It helps tie them together as a group while letting each guy show off their own style a bit. It looks nice.

On a trivial note, that monorail under the tree is kind of wonderful. Given that they are based in Orlando, FL it's also wonderfully appropriate. All in all, a lovely video that's sure to give you all kinds of warm and fuzzy feels.

Beautiful job, gentlemen.

That'll do it for ECHO: the trilogy. I hope that you've enjoyed getting to know these guys and hopefully this'll inspire you to become a fan. They need more of those, in my opinion. A lot more. In saying that, if you like any of their videos, share them. Buy their music and tell the people you know about them because great music deserves to be shared. And these guys are great.

Their links:
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