SOUNDTRACK: CRASH TEST DUMMIES-Jingle all the way… (2002).
Even though the Crash Test Dummies are often seen as a joke band or a one hit wonder (which I guess they are), I’ve liked them for a while (their earlier stuff a lot more than their later stuff, admittedly). But it seemed like they’d have a fun take on Christmas music.
And it starts out in a comical sort of way with Brad Robert’s deeper-than-ever voice reciting about his life in Los Angeles, where it is warm and sunny at Christmas time. I like that he rhymes 24th with up north. The spoken section is quite loud in the mix (it sounds like he is right in your ear). Unfortunately, that is the case when he starts singing too–he is uncomfortably loud in the mix and it sounds like he is holding back because of it–he doesn’t sound great and his voice sounds more comical than interesting. Which is a shame because the music (with cheesey keyboards) is great.
Roberts sings lead on about half of the songs. Ellen Reid sings lead on the other half except for a couple where they split lead duties.
The rest of Robert’s songs include: “Jingle Bells” (which is certainly comical–it sounds like a chain gang song with the “Hey!s” sounding almost like a prison chant). It’s weird and cool though (even if his voice is once again too loud in the mix). “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” has his voice mixed much better–he seems to be really singing. And this version–a loungey/jazzy rendition is much great fun. “God King Wenceslas” sounds proper (with Reid’s close backing vocals). It has a pretty penny whistle keeping the song going.
Ellen Reid has a great voice and I love hearing her sing. But in the first two songs she sings lead on in this disc she sounds like she is singing too slowly. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” especially sounds like the music is going to pass her up at any minute. I also don’t like the country vibe of the song. “In the Bleak Midwinter” is also (intentionally) slow, which I don’t like. Perhaps I just don’t like this song (although I do think the melody is lovely). “The Little Drummer Boy” is beautiful and Robert’s bass backing vocals are perfect. “Silent Night” is done in a countryish style, but I like this version. Although normally this song can make me cry, this version absolutely does not–too honky tonkish.
The final song, “The Huron Carol” is quite formal and proper–just Reid and a piano opening the song. It sounds very holy, very pretty. When Robert’s bass backing vocals come in, it adds more depth to the song. And it’s a lovely way to end.
[READ: October 30, 2014] Freedom
I read this a couple months ago and then got so caught up in reading other things that I never got around to posting about it. And that’s a bummer because I really liked the book a lot and I fear that I won’t remember everything I wanted to say about it.
I had read a couple of excerpts from the book in the New Yorker (quite some time ago). They were helpful in grounding the story for me, but they didn’t prepare me for the breadth of the story. It follows one family, the Berglunds, through several decades, focusing on each of them in great detail as they navigate through the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush and a smidge of the Obama years.
The Berglunds are a liberal family. They were among the first white families to move onto their urban street in St. Paul, Minnesota (after white flight to the burbs). Patty is a charming (some say smug) homemaker and Walter is a lawyer (public defendant, naturally). They have two kids, Jessica and Joey. Patty dotes on Joey to an embarrassing degree (Joey is embarrassed by it, Jessica is infuriated by it and even Patty is kind of embarrassed when she really thinks about it). At the same time she is rather neglectful of Jessica. Naturally, Jessica becomes quite the success (loves reading, committed to the environment), while Joey rebels and finds all kinds of ways to disappoint them and make money. (This isn’t a bad thing, but the family has plenty of money and Joey doesn’t need to (especially not the way he goes about it). Not to mention Walter and Patty are not into the money for money’s sake thing.
The book opens that there was some “news” about Walter. He and Patty had moved to Washington DC two years earlier. He clearly did something bad (we won’t find out until much later). But that serves as an introduction to the Berglunds. And then we go back to see them, years earlier, settling into St Paul. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 