Ryan Hamilton - Christmas Wish featuring Emily Capell single review

Artist Ryan Hamilton has had a varied career and been part of many exciting music projects and bands but this time he’s branched out alone to go solo. However, for his new Christmas single he’s teamed up with London based artist Emily Capell to create a real Christmas cracker for the world, and boy do we need it. 

The pair have created a heartfelt love song with undercurrents of sadness and missing someone you’d lost before turning those feelings around into hope and happiness and the feeling that the future is bright. After the mania of 2020, this song and its vibe couldn’t feel more right because it’s been a rough year for everyone but we all need that glimmer of hope and positivity that things will be okay and Hamilton and Capell have captured that feeling and wrapped it in a musical gift to us all.

The song begins with the sadness of loss and missing someone you love with the lyrics ‘seven years since we said I do and one year since you left’ and ‘those traditions that I miss’ and it’s clear that there is pain in the lyrics from the loss of love and especially at Christmas that missing love is all the more painful to cope with. However, as the song progresses those glimmers of hope come through as the lyrics move on to ‘a voice said I’m back home’ and ‘we’re gunna do the things we used to’ and all of a sudden there’s joy and light and the feeling that Christmas is saved because the light in his life has come back and so has his happiness and his joy, his Christmas wish has come true. 

Emily Capell’s feature on the track is a perfect fit for the song, her falsetto sound is a wonderful complimentary addition to Hamilton’s smooth tones. Her voice is an almost angelic sound which feels very fitting for a Christmas song and she sings so beautifully on the track making an already fabulous song that bit better. Capell’s feature on this song is like snow on Christmas Day it takes something great and adds that little extra magic to make it perfect.

The song is filled with piano, guitar and a gentle drum beat to make it a soothing but joyous Christmas hit. The pair have produced a song that wraps you up within its music with its soft and warming sounds, it’s very much a song for the soul and that’s exactly what Christmas is about. 

Christmas Wish really is a true feel good Christmas song that is perfect for anyone and everyone this year. It’s a song that conjures images of Christmas nights spent with the ones you love. You can’t help but to picture the scene of yourself and those close to you with a cost Christmas sweater to keep you cozy, a warm mug of cocoa or maybe a mulled wine in your hands, maybe a crackling fire in the background and a Christmas tree and decorations all around to light up the room as you bask in the magic of Christmas and the love of those closest to you. The song just radiates the magical musical joy we want at this time of year and it feels like Christmas wrapped up in a musical present. 

-Georgina Shine

@imjustabandgeek