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This is out next month, but everyone has heard it already via internet leaks, right? Third straight excellent Shins LP, even if this one is a little more esoteric.
Every week I play one of the Decemberists LPs to death. And I think CHRIS FUNK easily bested STEPHEN COLBERT’s stand-in PETER FRAMPTON in the “shredathon” on Colbert’s TV show; though RICK NIELSEN of CHEAP TRICK, who joined all three for the final jam, would have been declared the real winner in any fair fight. All that said, this might be the least of the four Decemberists LPs, but it’s still got too many great songs not to capture your attention, especially “The Chimbley Sweep” and “Billy Liar,” both excellent KINKS-like songs.
This is the loud guitar, cranking bass, and stamping drums LP they’ve never fully attempted. This is what guitar effects were invented for: to cascade, reverberate, expand, and tantalize. Marry this to JOHN ANDREW FREDERICK’s compositional knack for smart poptunes, and you have this great, unexpected alterna-guitar-rock LP
Speaking of New Zealand, this is really the fifth ABLE TASMANS LP, their first since the Auckland, NZ band split following 1995’s Store in a Cool Place. Keyboardist GRAEME HUMPHREYS and singer PETER KEEN were their main songwriters. And yet, this is a fresh dimension, so maybe a new name was warranted. The Overflow is one of the deepest orchestral pop records you’ll hear this or any year. It sounds like someone took out a second mortgage to finance its recording, with its crescendoing strings, cooled-down horns, even elegiac euphonium (from the above-mentioned DON MCGLASHAN!), and most of all, Humphreys’ dominating piano so sonorous, it’s like its little hammers are pounding your head.
This was an X-mas present I gave my wife, and one I am glad to hear her throw on the CD turntable. It’s just a superb example of the savage young and raw Dylan at his most direct, pre-fame. It’s mostly covers, but none the worse for that.
This is the greatest holiday CD ever. Even if you don’t picture the snow falling like on the TV special, this is everything the solitary winter mood can conjure combined with the contrasting spirit of goodwill. Guaraldi has the perfect touch on the keys, and I play this to death every December.
Various Yule B’ Swingin’ Too (Hip-O/Universal)
This is my favorite uptempo holiday LP. It’s all jazz, much of it old. You can’t go wrong with LOUIS ARMSTRONG and DUKE ELLINGTON and BENNY GOODMAN and Co., and such boppin’ songs as “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus.”
Various – A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector (Abkco)
Everyone rates this one, because, well, it’s so good—especially THE RONETTES and DARLEEN LOVE
Various – WCBS FM 101.1 The Ultimate Christmas Album Vol. II (Collectables)
Half of this is hokey, but I love the doo wop stuff like THE MELODEERS’ “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and THE HEARTBEATS’ “After New Year’s Eve” and the old R&B of JO ANN CAMPBELL’s “Happy New Year Baby”
Various – Jingle Bell Jazz (Columbia)
This is my wife’s favorite collection of holiday music we listen to each year. MILES DAVIS’s “Blue Xmas (To Whom it May Concern)” is an amusing rant in particular.
