2016 Holiday Album Special: Part 3

Artist: Various Artists
Album: ‘Festivus! A Highline Indie Holiday Spectacular‘
Year: 2013

While I shouldn’t badmouth music I get for free, I can poke some fun at it. This indie collection of songs does, to its credit, provide music that is played straight and without much irony. Or is that the ironic part? But, since the indie scene is all about turning paradigms on its head, it does come out sounding like the soundtrack to every [adult swim] commercial bumper ever. Thank goodness that music resonates with me. This won’t be coming out in mixed company, that’s for sure. I’ll just keep it as my own little secret.

Track of Distinction: “Every Day’s a Holiday” by Piney Gir is absolutely fantastic and a ton of fun.

Artist: Various Artists
Album: ‘A Winter’s Solstice, Vol. 3 – A Windham Hill Collection‘
Year: 2003

Another year, another collection of new-age holiday music surfaces in my library. While this form of non-offensive music can be useful to set the mood at most any sober holiday gathering, sitting along in my office it makes for some good sleepy-time music. While I did enjoy the fact several offering included vocals this time around, it was almost too subdued. If you listen to this one alone, make sure you’re caffeinated or hard at work.

Track of Distinction: John Gorka’s “Christmas Bells” is practically a country song. But a good one, not one where the family farm burns down on Christmas Eve but everyone learns something about themselves.

Artist: Various Artists
Album: ‘Christmas Songs‘
Year: 2000

For a compilation with such a generic name, this turned out to be a really good mix of songs from established artists, some classics, and others who were up-and-coming 16 years ago. While the mix was top-heavy, it did not flare out in the second half, offering good cuts of classic songs made almost like new by some artists who showed a bit of promise and took advantage of this opportunity.

Track of Distinction: Jenifer McLaren’s rendition of “Ave Maria” is graceful and doesn’t make my speakers pop from the treble-some high notes.

Artist: Various Artists
Album: ‘Time-Life Treasury of Christmas, Vol. 2‘
Year: 1999

This was supposed to be a monster two-fer with both volumes included, but the first one was so messed up I just skipped it and came here. The music I did hear was pretty generic and appealing to an older generation (like the ones who remember their subscription to Life Magazine decades ago). It was inoffensive and had a few good surprises, but for the most part it would be a good mix to play at a holiday party with little ones.

Track of Distinction: Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper” is about wrapping up wonderful things in paper. This song would have been perfection if, at the end, those gifts were smoked slowly.

Artist: Various Artists
Album: ‘Now That’s What I Call Christmas, Vol. 2‘
Year: 2003

In what should have been titled, ‘Now That’s A Lot of Shitty Christmas Music,’ we have a double-disc offering of contemporary and older holiday songs that do not fit together in any way. It feels like the production company reviewed the list of songs they could legally publish, found they had a Destiny’s Child song they forgot to include on the first edition, and decided to shit out a new, hastily crafted mix that is barely coherent and was a chore to finish.

Track of Distinction: Mariah Carey’s rendition of “All I Want For Christmas Is You“reminded me why she was the biggest singer on the planet for most of the 90s and how she earned her diva points.