This Week in Music: Christmas Songs

This week, instead of covering new music Nick Rattigan takes a look at songs and albums of Christmas' past to ready you for the holiday season.

A Very She & Him Christmas (Oct 2011)

It has been a pretty dry month for new music. For the most part, I am just awaiting next months line up of albums. But for now it seems like everybody is feeling the Christmas spirit. And if there is one band feeling the Christmas spirit it is  She & Him. Apparently they have been feeling it since October when this album actually came out. However it has been getting a lot of attention recently, because nobody listens to Christmas music for Halloween. This album has been destined to happen since Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward had their appearance on Conan last year to play “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” which you can check out here. http://teamcoco.com/blog/web-exclusive-video-happy-holidays-from-she-him-conan. The only thing that disappoints me is how much I loved this video versus how much I hated the album. While all of my favorite Christmas songs are there they don’t necessarily give me that warm and jolly feeling, but more the feeling of an overproduced Christmas album. Zooey’s voice sounds much better when its not under so much reverb or being rushed to keep up with there fast-passed version of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” . While I wouldn’t seek out to listen to any of these songs on my own, I guess I wouldn’t mind them coming up during my multiple Christmas Pandora playlists. (C+)

Other Christmas Songs

Slow Club - "Christmas, Thanks for Nothing" (This Week): This EP has some pretty damn depressing original Christmas songs, but it also has a great rendition of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". Worth a listen. (B) Woods - “Christmas Time is Here” (This Week): A bold move to cover such an untouched Christmas classic, but with high risk is high reward. This cover is awesome. (A) Julian Casablancas - "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" (2009): Sadly this Christmas song is the best thing this Strokes front man has done in recent times. Just as good if not better than the original SNL version. (A) The Hives and Cyndi Lauper - "Christmas Duel" (2009): This song shies away from most traditional Christmas songs, but still keeps the same traditional holiday spirit. This Christmas duet is one not to be forgotten. (A+) Fucked Up - "Don' They Know It's Christmas" (2009): Just like its original had a ton of other guests in it to raise money for charity. It was a good concept but for all the talent that is involved the song is just okay. (B-)   Nick Rattigan is the music director for UNR's Wolf Pack Radio and co-host of No Future Radio, 7-8 pm Tuesdays at www.wolfpackradio.org