FESTIVE ALBUM JAMBOREE
Tis' the season for crap
records fa-la-la-la-Ia la- la-Ia-la. Or is it, we ask ourselves? Since the dawn of record companies exploiting every opportunity for a buck we have had Christmas records. But the big question is does Christmas music actually have to suck? No. it doesn't is the answer, there are literally dozens of great records collecting together the musical joys of the festive season but does this spirit of Christmas still survive today? We dive headlong into a snowdrift of recent releases to see if the old fairy dust has been Sprinkled on any of them.
Kicking things off are the Barenaked Ladies. chubby North Americans who have made millions from succinctly blending smart ass humour with
l’fi-naIu-d " Ilhlidays
quirky indie pop over the years. Barenaked for the Holidays (Desperation Records) .0. is a decidedly eclectic and expectedly mixed bag of holiday gifts. At worst they are truly annoying - their ‘00 they Know it's Christmas' is sooooo spectacularly bad that it goes good then comes back round to bad again. There are some cracking instrumentals: “O Holy Night' and ‘Carol of the Bells’ for starters. Mercifully. the bad bits are short if not sweet. More gentle is Nettwerk Records' collection A Winter's Night (Nettwerk) COO . a more
folksy collection
dominated by singer/songwriter types - Dido. Sarah McLachlan and Avril Lavigne all appear. Christmas is stressful enough at times without Avril whining about how she got the wrong col0ur eyeliner this year, but thankfully the appearance of Ron Sexsmith and a great rendition of ‘Gaudette' by Madiaeval Baebes keeps this above average.
The Pearlfishers manage to incorporate country. techno-pop and Byrdsian
harmonies into the wildly eclectic A Sunflower at Chrsitmas EP (Marina) 0... Sweet as sugar mice but lighter than your mother's meringues. In theory the oldies should be the best in this area. Everyone's favourite womanisers in fact bring forth a rather mixed bag. For such an entertaining skirt chasing rabble rouser when it comes to Christmas. Dean Martin sounds like he’s trying to make it
up to the wife and kids for all those late nights on the town on Christmas with Dino (Capitol) .0. Christmas made Sleazy, which is quite an achievement. Frank Sinatra is way
more adept at this sentimental crooning malarkey and even
ropes in Bing Crosby and his kids to make the egg nog go down a little eaSier. The Christmas Collection (Reprise) O... is Silky it a little one dimenSional but If only that could be said about the Beach Boys. whose sole purpose it seems was to torture listeners Witli
a relentless cavalcade of insipid screeching and sleigh bells. Christmas with the Beach Boys (Capitol/
EMI) O is
beautifully presented.
and lovingly annotated.
It's a shame the music is so bloody god-
awful.
Leave it to the indie
kids to bring up the
rear. The OC: Have a very Merry ChrisniL/kkah (Warner) .0. is the third
mam/M
collection of Music
i from Channel 4’s
peerless teen pap drama and has Low.
Jimmy Eat World and
Eels and others
roughing up the festive funk. It's way too short
to be completely
worthwhile but has
some novel moments. Maybe this Christmas Tree (Nettwerk)
= .0. similar indie rock route
follows a
to Santa‘s workshop but gets a bit too down beat at
moments. What are
they thinking? Cheer up kids! It's Christmas! (Kris Kringle)
the debut single limited edition 7" pink Vinyl released 13th december
clitiiiiiileiiiiiilieciiils
THE LONG AWAITED ALBUM FROM THE FORMER 'BIG DISH' SINGER.
EXIT lTlLJSIE I '
STEVEN LII—IDng
‘A gorgeously rnuted wander through an autumnal nocturnal aeaeon’ The Times
"l'hekindofdlecthat‘allabletoetaltlt’eowncult’ The Guardian
‘So beautiful it could atop the trafflc’ The Herald
‘The understated pull of The Blue Nile with the melodic power of Coldplay’ Album of the week The Sunday Times
‘itcould,andahould, beafavouriteofthenatlon’ Wor‘d Magazine
out now on seminalr‘ecords
THE LIST 81