Heavy Rotation: Week Ending December 25, 2009

01. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass, (Capitol Records.1970)
02. Various - Noel, (Via.1995)
03. Let's Wrestle - In The Court Of The Wrestling Lets, (Schnapple Corpse.2009)
04. The Soft Pack - The Muslims, (The Orchard.2009)
05. Various - The Broken Christmas, (Broken Records.1988)
06. A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Heart, (Mute.2009)
07. The Mary Onettes - Islands, (Labrador.2009)
08. Morrissey - Years of Refusal, (Decca.2009)
09. Martin Carr - Ye Gods (and little fishes), (Sonny Boy Records.2009)
10. Isis - Panopticon, (Ipecac.2004)


Fine. I'll say it. "Merry Christmas, to my discerning music listeners!". As you can see, I've managed to spin a few holiday tunes. Yeah. The Broken Christmas is a compilation by some of the best Christian "alternative rock" artists from the late 80s on the Broken Records label (hence, the edgy album title). Some has aged well - listen to the new-wave-minstrel-folk with heavy evangelical theology of "Born In A Stable" by Level Heads, and the haunting and mournful take on "Angels We Have Heard On High" by Adam Again which is utterly, spectacularly amazing. Most haven't held up. The rest is downright terrible - Undercover's lame ass treatment of "O Come All Ye Faithful" or the rap "Ruby Red" by JC & The Boyz. Nonetheless, it's wonderful tunes to play around the house, but only if you can stomach the heavy-proselytizing/"only son of god" evangelicalism.

Noel is a concept album brought to fruition by christian rockers Derri Daughtery and Steve "Indie Hindie" Hindalong (of The Choir). They enlisted their talented friends to make a very artistic Christmas record; contributors include Riki Michelle (of Adam Again), Brent Bourgeois (ex-Bourgeois Tagg), Jerry Chamberlain (ex-Daniel Amos), Buddy & Julie Miller, Michael Pritzl (The Violet Burning), and Kevin Smith (aka KMax, ex-DC Talk). This is my favorite Christmas record of all time (even though it has a heavy christian message). It is basically designed as a worship album with interestingly arranged traditional carols and incredibly well-written original songs. The style is a fascinating combination of alt-country, pop, gospel, blues, and alternative-rock. This amalgamation makes the traditional carols ("Silent Night", "O Holy Night", "What Child Is This", "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", "Away In A Manger", "Angels We Have Heard On High") sound different, yet still timeless. The original songs really shine here: "Babe In A Straw" is gorgeous Byrds-ian pop with jangly acoustic and electric guitars; "In The Bleak Mid-Winter" is a soft-sweet ballad sung by KMax, and "Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella" is a simple melody drenced in gorgeous layers of reverb-laden guitars (The Church is an obvious influence). This is a start-to-finish album and if you are of the Christian faith, it will move you. If you appreciate a unique, and, dare I say, original take on Christian music, it will move you, too.

###