We've made mention of G. Love's Christmas music offerings in the past (on the Brushfire This Warm December compilations), but I only noticed lately that there was a full Christmas album released by this rootsy rocker back in 2017. Three of the five songs on those compilations are from this album -- "Christmas Baby," "Christmas Cookies," and "Christmas Blues." Also on this album are the mellow "So Blessed," the sprightly "Christmas Morning" and "Christmas Change," the dour "Cape Cod Winter Blues," the mid-tempo "Merry Christmas," and the accurately titled "Christmas Rock" and "Christmas Boogie." This is a solid Americana celebration of the holiday and you should check it out. Completists will have to go back to the label compilations to hear "Christmas Wave" and "New Year Blues," however.
January 2021 Archives
This is a souvenir of a 2020 livestreamed show sponsored by this English record label, after which the album was offered for download. It's all modern hit radio synth-pop-rock, and is considerably fattened up by a number of non-holiday songs. But it's a benefit album with proceeds going to the Trussell Trust, so feel free to grab the whole thing or go song by song. Meanwhile, I'll concentrate on the most holiday-oriented tunes. Caroline Polachek starts things off by repurposing a previous song of hers, "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings," as "So Cold," with a few retinseled lyrics. Hannah Diamond's "Where Are You Christmas is a suitably upbeat holiday number, A.G. Cook's "Oracle Icicle" is a bit more obscure lyrically, and Kane West (not Kanye) offers something called "Tryptich," which as you might guess is a three-part number. I couldn't associate the first part with anything, the third part is "What Child Is This/Greensleeves," and the middle part is a cover of a-ha's "Take On Me" with synthesized dog woofs doing the melody; a little something to follow the Singing Dogs' "Jingle Bells" on your playlists. "White Xmas" by umru & Silver Sphere is not the famous carol but a vaguely hip-hop confection, while jonny gorgeous' "Blue Xmas" is a vocordered-up version of the well-known song, and Himera does something similar with Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." Holly Waxwing turns all the synths loose on a cover of Riuchi Sakamoto's instrumental "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" from the movie of the same name, six impala offers the clattery "FARAWAY199XMAS," and there are instrumentals from A.G. Cook, "Glasswurx," and Kai Whiston, "S.N.O.W." In an odd touch, the collection contains an EP's worth of hip-hop holiday tuneage from Aaron Cartier; makes one wonder why it didn't get a separate release. Cartier offers "Wishlist," "Cartier Christmas," "Got Da Bag," "Let It Snow" (not the popular carol), "I Really Like Christmas," and "Christmas Time Christmas Time." I'll let you decide about the half-dozen non-holiday tunes on this collection, but as for me, I like Polichek and Diamond's tunes, and it might be worth someone's while to drop "Tryptich" into an audio editor and extract the "Take on Me" part to mash up with the Singing Dogs. Grab this from Bandcamp.
Advance Base is Owen Ashworth, formerly of Casiotone For the Painfully Alone, and this 2020 release is a sweet lo-fi original about Steve, a fellow who took LSD on Christmas Eve while a teenager and now everything to him is about Christmas. Most of us are aware of that one guy in the neighborhood who's a little eccentric about something, and this song captures that in a sympathetic way.
New York's Ahmed Gallab records as SINKANE, and for 2020 he recruited a bunch of semi-famous friends from LCD Soundsystem, Beastie Boys, Holy Ghost and Antibalas to cover the Waitresses' holiday classic. It's a charity effort on behalf of the Food Bank For New York City. You can grab it from Bandcamp.
