The CHIRP Blog
It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #10, and an ode to Christmas on the road from Low.
#10: Low, "Just Like Christmas" (1999)
This Friday is predicted to be the busiest airline travel day of the 2014 holiday season, the peak of a 17-day period in which more than 45 million people will crisscross the skies over America, looking for (or getting away from) home. The urge to return to our origins hits strongest during the winter, whether the journey takes us to a physical place or a group of people or the signifiers of our youth. It's a subject covered by many classics carols ("Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and the tearjerkingly on-the-nose "I'll Be Home For Christmas" chief among them), and it seems to be on the mind of Low's Mimi Parker as she rambles through the Scandanavian countryside.
Although it's got all of the snow and sleigh bells needed to make our top ten (and score a plum spot on 2004's The O.C. Mix 3: Have A Very Merry Chrismukkah), the action of "Just Like Christmas" doesn't necessarily take place during the holidays. Rather, the song speaks to the power of human interactions, especially those entered into when you're cold and lost and far from home, to conjure the same kind of warmth usually reserved for the December 25s of our bubble-light-illuminated memories. It wraps its all-weather sentiment in some shiny holiday trimmings, waiting to be opened whenever it's needed most. If you wind up delayed in an airport during the next three weeks, you know where to find it.
Morgan Delt | Morgan Delt | Trouble In Mind Records
"I think we've become unstuck in time and everything is going to move all at once from now on," Morgan Delt said of his approach to music. Do you hear a transcendence through the decades by way of 1960's production trickery, or simply a map to our roots? It may be only the reflection we deduce from experience. Regardless, Morgan Delt's debut self-titled album landed #7 on Norman Records Top 50 Albums of 2014. The album's flow of low percussion tones, intense bass, layered with colorful drums and Delt's wispy lyrics inspires one to grab a crown of flowers, or at least a tambourine. You may've already picked up Morgan Delt's cassette-only release, Psychic Death Hole, in December 2012. Careful: the 2014 album offers five additional songs to get lost in. These 11 tracks will add up to 32:45 you may need to repeat. Then repeat again. If we all thoroughly digested this album, then came together for a healthy discussion, there would be just as many opinions on its meaning. Which is all good, since that's just the way Mr. Delt wants it.
It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #11, and the catchy collaboration from the sweethearts in Best Coast and Wavves.
It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #12, and the Super Furry Animals guide to gifting on the cheap.
#12: Super Furry Animals, "The Gift That Keeps Giving" (2007)
We haven't talked much about gifts on this countdown, but giving and receiving is an unavoidable part of the holiday season. Even if you don't bash skulls like a Mad Max nomad on Black Friday, showing at least some form of material/monetary affection for your loved ones sometimes seems like the only thing keeping this whole place from going full Thunderdome.
Despite the societal pressure (and sardonically adorable video above), I don't get the sense that Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys is crooning about any material goods on "The Gift That Keeps Giving." Rather, I think he's found a way to make the whole idea of spreading peace, love, understanding, et. al. just as sexy as a stocking crammed full of $100 bills. Most importantly, he's done it in a way that doesn't hammer the message over your head with a giant, peppermint-flavored mallet. Whether the gift he's talking about is another person, an excellent song, or just a memory of a really great time in his life, he probably won't be needing the receipt.
It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #13, and the soulful (and seasonal) sounds of Nate Dogg.
#13: Nate Dogg - "Be Thankful" (1996)
At the beginning of 1996, Death Row Records still looked unstoppable. The February release of All Eyez on Me cemented Tupac Shakur's status as West Coast hip-hop's preeminent voice, and a forthcoming album from Snoop Doggy Dogg promised to build on the massive popularity of his still-spun 1993 debut. Ten months later, the label as a tastemaking force was essentially over, with Tupac slain, Snoop on his way to sign with Master P's No Limit Records, and label cofounder Suge Knight sent up on parole violations and rackateering charges. It's odd, then, that Death Row picked December 1996 for the release of its first (and only) Christmas compilation. Christmas on Death Row came out at the exact moment when the once-triumphant label had the least to celebrate.
Meant to drum up some positive PR (all proceeds went to charity), the album faltered, selling only 200,000 copies and failing to distract from the label's mounting problems. It also failed from an artistic standpoint, delivering mostly safe R&B numbers and by-the-book covers instead of the bombast that fans had come to expect. Still, it has its merits, the biggest coming from the late Nate Dogg, who'd already earned a reputation as the most soulful voice of '90s hip-hop. On "Be Thankful," Nate Dogg shoulders the full weight of the label's painful year (including the delay of his own G-Funk Classics, Vol. 1 & 2.) with a mixture of resignation, reflection, and perseverance. It's a message the resonates with lots of people this time of year, even if they're not dealing with a crumbling hip-hop empire and the threat of federal prison time.