Top Fifteen Christmas Tunes

I've been taking it a little slowly this week due to the busyness of the Christmas season (sort of a semi-vacation). As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is a special place in my heart for Christmas music. It's a package deal in that there is definitely a lot of sifting through the bad. At the right moment though, a song will click, and I will find myself head first in holiday cheer. Here is a list of songs where such a connection is not difficult to come by.*

Merry Christmas! I'll be back next week, hopefully with a best albums of the decade list.


15. "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" - The Royal Guardsmen
14. "Mele Kalikimaka" - Bing Crosby
13. "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" - Neil Diamond
12. "2000 Miles" - The Pretenders
11. "Run Ruldolph Run" - Chuck Berry
10. "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" - Thurl Ravenscroft 
9. "Christmas Wrapping" - The Waitresses
8. "All I Want For Christmas Is You" - Mariah Carey
7. "A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn't So)" - The Flaming Lips
6 ."Twelve Pains Of Christmas" - Bob Rivers 
5. "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee
4. "Star Of Wonder" - Sufjan Stevens 
3. "Christmas In Hollis" - Run-DMC
2. "Christmastime" - The Smashing Pumpkins 
1. "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - Darlene Love

*it should be noted that nearly any rendition of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" outdoes every song on this list.

Trent Reznor

My CD player has an alarm clock in it where you can program a CD to wake you up in the morning. A few years ago, I picked a random album and started going one forward and one backward from there (all of my CDs are in alphabetical order), each day being a different CD. Right now I've just hit midway through the N section - Nine Inch Nails. Remember when it was cool to like Nine Inch Nails? Remember when it was not cool to like Nine Inch Nails? Trent Reznor is the rare artist that has managed to still be able to appeal to an indie audience, despite the fact that his band has been a stadium act for over a decade. The stadium status though merely pertains to his popularity. What is odd about him is that he is an artist whose music has remained so self serious, yet he has still managed to thrive in a music environment that has a tremendous undercurrent of humor and irony. For the first half of the 2000's, it became decreasingly cool to like Nine Inch Nails. The Fragile received very mixed reviews and was not the comeback that Reznor had hoped for. While he faded from the public eye, his legacy became tarnished by the music press which had written him off as a 90's has been. Even when he returned finally in 2005 with With Teeth, many were still resistant to accept the man. Interestingly enough, what saved his image was his infamous Twitter account. Somehow through his postings on the internet, both new and old audiences came to hear his voice again and came to know, much to everyone's surprise, a sense of humor. Because of his ability to poke fun and show his human side, his albums become progressively more accepted. Year Zero and The Slip were widely well received, and the tours that ensued followed suit. I'm personally happy for the man as I've always believed in him, and thoroughly enjoyed The Fragile. Even though he cancelled his Twitter account this previous summer, I really hope he does not fade from view as it is most enthralling to live in a world where it is finally cool to like Trent Reznor again.

Best Of The Decade

I am compiling a list of the best albums of this decade. It's hard to believe that we are quickly approaching 2010. The records released in this decade are incredibly important to me personally. Although my consciousness in music began in the 90's, the 00's is where I really grew up...beginning in those in limbo days of 2000, a world whose radio stations were either dominated by boy-band oriented tween pop, or the ear wrenching horror of nu metal and rap rock. From there, indie rock (sort of) emerged again in the form of a revived garage rock. There were a handful of bands that had the sound, all of which were quite different (it's odd that there was a time where The Strokes and The White Stripes were bound together so closely in the public's mind). From there, our sights turned back to the early eighties. A slew of bands emerged with post-punk as their template to varying success. This then led further down the influence market which gives us our mixed bag of sorts that we have today.

As for pop, it also made a huge turn around. With a few exceptions, pop music was at its most horrible at the end of the 90's, so much so it would seem it would never recover. Not so, as the mid 00's spawned a slew of pop acts (namely ones produced by Timbaland) that actually delivered catchy songs for the whole public, not just to 12-17 girls. With it, hip-hop picked up its slack that was given after the death of Biggie Smalls. While Eminem, still misogynist and hookless, reigned king at the beginning of the decade, he eventually went away, and everyone realized that Jay-Z was the king of the genre. The decade also found a return of cross genre breeding that was actually good. Damon Albarn of all people came up with a group (Gorillaz) that incorporated his britpop past with a number of genres, but most particularly hip-hop, and the results were fantastic.

I haven't come up with a number yet, but a countdown of the best of the decade will emerge soon, hopefully reaching it's end on new years eve or day. I hope you enjoy it.

RIP Brittany Murphy

I was always a fan of that song she did with Paul Oakenfold.

Paul Oakenfold - New Music - More Music Videos

 

RIP

Top 10 New Songs On Greatest Hits Compilations That Didn't Suck

Something was brought to my attention when a customer scoffed at the tracklisting of the recently released Foo Fighters Greatest Hits package. It seems to be a requirement for any artist that releases a greatest hits, to include at least one new song on it. Isn't this just a bit presumptuous? Do you honestly believe Rolling Stones, that those four new tunes deserved a spot amongst your other 36 Licks? "That Was Then, This Is Now"?...It's no wonder why Mike Nesmith wanted no part of The Monkees reunion (the 80's one at least). Given the current state of Roger Daltry's voice, I didn't even bother with the two new songs on the most recent Who best-of (coincidentally titled Then And Now). It's a trick nearly every existing band will stoop to when releasing a greatest hits album. The idea is that it tries to rope in a few more sales from the die hard fans that will shell out the sheckles for one or two more songs...only to take it home and hear second rate, pretend hit singles like "Untitled" by The Smashing Pumpkins or "Fame 90". This being said, here are a few exceptions to this rule:

10.  The Psychedelic Furs - "All That Money Wants" from All Of This And Nothing (1988)
9. Prince - "Pink Cashmere" from The Hits 1 (1993)
8. Blur - "Music Is My Radar" from Blur: The Best Of (2000) 
7. Beastie Boys - "Alive" from The Sounds Of Science (1999)*
6. Morrissey - "All You Need Is Me" from Greatest Hits (2008)
5. Prince - "Pope" from The Hits 2 (1993)**
4. Bob Dylan - "You Ain't Going Nowhere" from Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II (1971)
3. Neil Young - "Winterlong" from Decade (1977)
2. The Cure - "Cut Here" from Greatest Hits (2001)
1. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "Mary Jane's Last Dance" from Greatest Hits (1993)

*technically not a greatest hits, but an anthology of hits, fan/band favorites, rarities, and unreleased tracks

**that's right...Prince is on there twice