SOUNDTRACK: A DIFFERENT KIND OF CHRISTMAS (1994).
This is one of the first alternative Christmas albums I bought. I don’t listen to it that much because I tend to think it’s not that good (the cover is pretty uninspired). But there’s actually quite a lot of good stuff on this.
SYD STRAW-“The Christmas Twist”
I’m happy to report that the “twist” is not some dark storyline, but an actual dance of The Twist. Syd has written a Twist and it’s fun and dancey with plenty of Christmas lines to sing along to. It’s a great opening track.
SHONEN KNIFE-“Space Christmas”
Shonen Knife does what they do best–short fast punky pop songs. This one about a space Christmas, of course.
NRBQ-“A Christmas Wish”
I know this from the She & Him version. I didn’t realize I had the original. It’s sweet and cute with a really catchy and lovely melody in the “people all over the world” line.
BRUCE COCKBURN-“Mary Had A Baby”
This is one of those call and response songs that is very repetitive and goes on for too long. If it was shorter it would be fun.
The dB’s-“Home For The Holidays”
This is kind of a stomping country song. It’s got a cool stomp stomp in the middle. At under 3 minutes it’s just right.
SHELLYAN ORPHAN-“Ice” [NSFC]
I love the vocals and the song is quite pretty. But this song is a downer (I don’t like Christmas anymore) and at over 5 minutes is not really good Christmas party music.
FISHBONE-“It’s A Wonderful Life”
Man I love this song. It’s a super fun and dancey ska song that cites It’s a Wonderful Life and is just full of fun and pep.
POI DOG PONDERING-“Mele Kalikimaka”
It’s funny to hear this Hawaiian song done in this New Orleans brass style. It’s a fun song regardless of who is doing it.
T-BONE BURNETT-“God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”
This opens as a pretty instrumental version of this song on acoustic guitar and violin. Lovely. The vocals are fine, but I’d have preferred it with no words–the instrumentation was really striking,
TIMBUK 3-“All I Want For Christmas” [NSFC]
I really disliked Timbuk 3 back in the 1980s. But I find their strange deliver to be reminiscent of X and I’m quite attracted to their style. I like this song a lot. Although I can’t endorse a Christmas song about WWIII. And I suppose lyrically, it’s a bit naive. But the music is fantastic.
DAVE EDMUNDS-“Run, Rudolph Run”
I don;t know that anyone can get me to enjoy this song. Certainly not this vert standard version of it.
SHAWN COLVIN-“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”
Shawn has a lovely voice and this song is delightful. It’s a simple piano version with some gentle accompaniment. Interestingly, this does not appear on her own Christmas album (see the 24th), probably because it might be too upbeat–she does get a bit carried away, vocally, by the end.
So there’s nothing stellar on this disc (except Fishbone), but it’s a solid collection of alternative versions of songs and a few solid originals.
[READ: October 19, 2017] Pashmina
I wanted to love this book so much. It has so many awesome elements. The black and white to color juxtapositions are wonderful. The colors are gorgeous and Chanani’s drawing style is simple but charming and effective.
And I think wanting to like this book as much as I did is why I wound up not enjoying it as much as I wanted.
And that’s because it feel like there’s a lot left out of the book–I wanted it to be twice as long.
This story is about Priyanka, a young Indian-American girl. She is raised by her mother (and knows literally nothing about her father–her mother won’t say a word about him). (more…)
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I enjoyed Shonen Knife, perhaps ironically at first, back in the 90s. But I grew to really like them. Then I kind of forgot about them as younger noisier Japanese bands took over my brain space.
