Merry Christmas! 30 songs

Top 10 modern hymn arrangements:
Adam Again- Angels We Have Heard on High (Broken Christmas comp., not sure where to find it)
Mindy Smith- Away in a Manger (free on Amazon)
Over the Rhine- The First Noel
Jars of Clay- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Sara Groves- It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (free on Amazon)
Sojourn- Joy to the World  (free on NoiseTrade)
Rosie Thomas- O Come O Come Emmanuel
Eisley- O Holy Night (free on their website)
Sixpence None the Richer- Silent Night (free on Amazon)
Sleeping at Last- What Child is This (free on NoiseTrade)

Top 10 modern covers:
Fiona Apple- Frosty the Snowman
She & Him- Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (free!)
Rosie Thomas- Christmas Don't Be Late (The Chipmunk Song. Drastically different take on the song which takes something silly and makes it serious.)
Jimmy Eat World- Last Christmas
Starflyer 59- I'll Be Home for Christmas
Tess Wiley- Come On Ring Those Bells (free from Tess herself)
Mindy Smith- Silver Bells
Sleeping at Last- White Christmas (free on NoiseTrade)
Thrice- Happy Christmas (War is Over)
Fleming & John- Carol of the Bells (Was free on their website years ago. Look up the background on this song if you don't already know it, also called the Ukrainian Bell Carol.)


Top 10 original Christmas songs from the last 15 years:
Brown Feather Sparrow- Let Us Come Together (free on Bandcamp)
Rosie Thomas- Why Can't It Be Christmas Time All Year
Mindy Smith- Follow the Shepherd Home
Sufjan Stevens- Christmas in the Room (from his unreleased 8th Christmas EP. Search hard enough online and you will find it; don't know a current link off hand)
The Be Good Tanyas- Rudy
Coldplay- Christmas Lights
Low- If You Were Born Today
Over the Rhine- Snow Angel
Derri Daugherty & Steve Hindalong (The Choir)- Babe in the Straw (Noel CD)
The Innocence Mission- Hymn for Christmas Day (was free on their website)

My top two favorite Christmas albums ever are both from the last couple of years:
Mindy Smith- My Holiday
Rosie Thomas- A Very Rosie Christmas
Both of them balance some terrific new original songs and reverent versions of classics while giving them interesting twists.

R.E.M. - Collapse into Now

Video is live, but clips are all studio versions of songs from the new REM album; they sound great. And here is a lyric video of a full song:



Other albums releasing in the first quarter of 2011:
Eisley- The Valley
Sixpence None the Richer- Strange Conversation
Over the Rhine- The Long Surrender

Brown Feather Sparrow

I have been mentioning this Dutch band to people for years, and now is the time to take the plunge and buy Brown Feather Sparrow's albums if you have not already. They recently put all four LPs on Bandcamp for download, at 5 Euros each ($6.50), or in the case of their new Christmas album, at "name your own price" (no minimum, so free if you are poor or broke). Their albums have always been extremely hard to get without paying $20+ dollars to import the CDs across the Atlantic.

I hate comparisons, but for fans of the Innocence Mission, Over the Rhine and the Weepies; primarily female vocal-led folk rock.

I downloaded their new Christmas album two days ago, and it excellent and extremely diverse. About half original songs and half traditional, and with a variety of styles and singers. It is actually titled Brown Feather Sparrow and Friends, as lead singer/songwriter Lydia van Maurik turns over creative control and vocal duties on many of the songs. Buy the albums below; listed newest to oldest.

Ben Gibbard + Zooey Deschanel - I'll Never Find Another You

Video quality is pretty terrible, but the audio sounds nice. Worth 3 minutes of your time.

Sixpence update

Sixpence None The Richer's new album, which has been complete since Spring 2010, will finally be released on March 8, 2011. I have a lot I want to write about it, but can't just yet.








In unrelated news, all of Poor Old Lu's out-of-print albums are available digitally finally!

The Violet Burning

I used to be a huge Violet Burning fan, pretty much throughout the 90's. Their self-tiled album released in 1996 was one of my favorites from that decade and 1998's Plastic & Elastic was also very good. Michael Pritzl is a good song-writer and performer, but honestly his albums are only as good as his surrounding cast. When he as Andy Prickett playing guitar with him, they are phenomenal. I saw them live with Prickett many times  in the early 2000's and the shows were outstanding. Well, starting with 2003's This is the Moment, the band went on rapid decline and everything they have done since is just boring. Until now; maybe. They sent out an email link yesterday, where I discovered this:


the violet burning from the violet burning on Vimeo.

They have a new 3CD set coming out at the end of this year, all new material, and I am intrigued.

People Get Ready (ex-This Beautiful Mess)

New album from People Get Ready became available today on Bandcamp. Cost is 7.99 Euro, which is $11.35. If you are unaware, it is almost exactly the same band as This Beautiful Mess (honestly they just changed their name). Sounds very similar, just a little more high-energy. This could easily be the best band in the Netherlands. Their best work is This Beautiful Mess' Temper the Wind to the Shorn Lamb, which is pretty much impossible to find online. I don't even know a single place you can buy it digitally in the US. (check iTunes if you are in Europe).

While you are at it, check out Brown Feather Sparrow and The Spirit That Guides Us, which share members with People Get Ready. It is pretty hard to find any of this music cheap, as the CDs you have to import from Europe. The Spirit That Guides Us has a few albums on emusic, including their best. For Brown Feather Sparrow, the cheapest and easiest route is by far iTunes in the US and elsewhere.

Blue Like Jazz and Steve Taylor

And while you are at it, listen to some Steve Taylor:


I think we need to have a Kickstarter to fund a new Steve Taylor album! Nothing against his directing (which is awesome), but I prefer his music.

Jimmy Eat World- Invented

Album drops in a week, until then you can stream three songs:

 

The Suburbs

Search Amazon.com for the suburbs arcade fire

I am sure you already know, but the Arcade Fire's new and 3rd LP, The Suburbs, is out TODAY. Not only that, but it is Amazon MP3's Daily Deal, for only $3.99. 16 songs for 25 cents each, can't beat that.

I am only half-way through it at this point, so I won't comment on the album itself. The BBC says it is "better than OK Computer."

I got the 2 x LP vinyl version in the mail yesterday, a day early. Thanks Merge Records. I was pretty pumped because this is one of only a handful of albums ever I am listening to for the first time on a turntable, not a CD or MP3s on my computer or on my iPod. I am also proud of myself for ignoring the early album leak that has been all over the internet for the last month. I had only heard two songs which were free instantaneous downloads when I pre-ordered it in June.

Here is excerpts from a dialogue between my wife and I last night around 9:00 p.m., after our two small children went to bed:

Me: So, you want to listen to the new Arcade Fire album?
Wife: (silence)
Me: The release date is tomorrow, but I got the vinyl in the mail today. I have never heard it.
Wife: (silence)
Me: How about just the first record?
Wife: O.K. (unenthusiastically)

Now midway through the first song...
Wife: Do you have the lyrics? (I hand them to her)

After two songs:
Wife: This is the first time in a long time I have sat down and listened to an album for the first time while reading the lyrics.

After three songs:
Wife: I forgot how much I like the Arcade Fire, this is good.

After four songs:
Wife: I hate to admit it, but I am really enjoying this.
Me: :)