| Stuff your stockings with 'em and play 'em all year 'round. These are the coolest, Christmas CDs for 2005! |
|---|
2005 Holiday CD roundup
Two weeks until Christmas, and there is still time to snag some of the coolest Christmas CDs out there. My picks:
Brian Wilson. What I Really Want for Christmas (Arista, 2005) Hands down not only one of the best Christmas albums in years, but far and away the only Christmas collection of 2005 to warrant year-'round play. If you've seen Wilson on tour, you already know where I'm coming from, but for those of you not hip to the jive, Wilson's crack band is one of the best in the business. The Wondermints, the indispensable Jeffrey Foskett and the crazy, lunatic percussive talents of Nelson Bragg, Jr. lead the charge with a plurality of kindred spirit players, bringing life to a variety of well-chosen holiday classics and, best of all, two new songs that are among Wilson's best-ever compositions. "What I Really Want for Christmas" is especially wonderful, featuring a Pet Soundsy arrangement and a melody that fish hooks bow to. Of the holiday perennials, "O Holy Night" shines brightest, with a vocal arrangement that will make the pine needles on your Christmas tree stand at attention. The closing, doo-wop-ish take on "Silent Night" is phenomenal. A keeper for year-'round playing.
The Butties. 12 Greatest Carols (Parody, 2005) Pop artists will be paying tribute to the Fab Four throughout all eternity, but I doubt any of them will come up with something as clever and nervy as this Syracuse, New York quartet. Reimagining Beatles classics as classic Christmas carols, The Butties have come up with a wholly unique way of topping the tree with tinsel. It's as if the British Invasion were reinventing the holiday season with guitars and a dose of Merseybeat in their stockings. The Butties don't just tackle the early Fabs--they travel through the Beatles' book of styles and nail it on the holiday head every time. From "Joy to the World" recast as a second cousin of "Please Please Me" and "The First Noel" morphed into the next door neighbor of "All My Loving," to the marriage of "What Child Is This?" and "Michelle," not to mention the weaving together of "Let It Snow" and "Let It Be," 12 Greatest Carols is a heartfelt tribute to Liverpool's favorite sons, and a damned good Christmas album to boot. Heck, it's just a great album, period.
Paul Revere and the Raiders. A Christmas Present...And Past (Koch, 2005) Nothing will prepare you for this long-lost tour-de-force Christmas album, originally released in 1967. You wouldn't be out of line expecting a Revere-infused collection of holiday workouts, but that's not what you get. Instead, you are treated to a concept album of sorts, introduced by a hopped-up announcer, the Salvation Army Band (or a facsimile thereof) and nine Mark Lindsay-Terry Melcher cowrites. The Raiders are hardly taking things seriously here; on second thought, maybe they are. Witness the drunken cover of "Jingle Bells," sounding like something off a Beatles Christmas record. "Brotherly Love" looks at the ways and means of holiday humanity to the tune of "What Child Is This," with offbeat lyrics and a slightly cynical viewpoint. The Raiders send their three-cornered hats into a downward spiral in the psychedelic, less-than-complimentary dig at the Postal Service, "Rain, Sleet, Snow," complete with "Within You, Without You" strings. A dash of cynicism dots the otherwise pretty pop song, "Macy's Window." It's not your usual Christmas fare, but as a remant of the swinging Sixties, and a lost classic from one of the decade's most popular bands, it's simply swell.
The Bellrays. Merry Christmas from The Bellrays (Cheap Lullaby, 2005) If you like your Christmas songs rockin' and rollin' with a little bit of funked-up soul and just a bit of nudge-nudge, wink-wink, The Bellrays' EP is for you. The opener, "All I Wanna Do Is Shag for Christmas," packs a whollop. The Prince-ish bluesy workout, "Santa's Got a Big Old Bag," is the standout here, with a great, aggressive bass line and a charging lead vocal from singer Lisa Kekaula, a cross between Tina Turner and, well, I don't have a clue who, but I know what I like, and this woman's a powerhouse belter. The rocking "Mary Christmas," who makes "every night Christmas Eve," leaves you breathless. "Rocket Ship Santa" takes off like a bat out of you-know-where, a rocker hell bent on getting to Mars before you do. Speaking of transportation, "Christmas Train" keeps the beat chugging along; dig that crunchy guitar and that out-of-control drumming. For those who like their Christmas songs original, rockin' and soulin', and full of energy, this is your cup of eggnog.
The Roches. We Three Kings (Paradox, 1990) Not a 2005 release, this is a miracle just the same: two dozen Christmas classics sung by the trio of angels known as The Roches. The three sisters from New Jersey, who made their initial splash onto the music scene in 1975, sing better today than they did back then, and that's saying something, because they were pretty incredible to start with. The three-part harmonies are characteristically warm and wonderful--nobody sings like The Roches--and the two originals, Suzzy's "Christmas Passing Through" and Terre's carol-like, astonishing "Star of Wonder," sung a cappella with enough grace to light the planet, are simply smashing. The sisters' version of "Winter Wonderland," sung like a trio of New Yawkers, is hilarious. But this is not a comedy record; these women began singing together by entertaining people with their arrangements of Christmas carols, so this is territory they know better than just about anyone else. They're currently on a short 30th anniversary tour, after having not sung together as a trio for 10 years; don't miss them.
Jeff Larson. (When Your) Christmas Fades (2005) I wanted to make sure I mentioned this lovely song from one of the best keepers of the Southern California melodic-pop flame. Slated to appear as a bonus track on Larson's next album in Spring 2006, this is a melodic masterpiece, full of warmth and humanity and lots of love and some of the best singing you'll ever hear, not to mention great lyrics like "I hope the season never fades/And we never lose the feeling/So tell me when your Christmas fades away/And I'll bring it back to you." It just doesn't get better than this. It's now playing on my Pure Pop radio show, and the expanded version of the show on Live365.com, by the way.
Alan Haber
December 11, 2005
Go to: Brian Wilson, The Butties, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Bellrays, The Roches, and Jeff Larson