Sunday, December 25th, 2005

Step Into Christmas

Thanks to the Perry Bible Fellowship for providing my new favourite Christmas image ever – Christmas Cards.

Merry Christmas – everyone else has been posting seasonal mp3s so I’m following suit with a bonus batch of Christmas covers. Well, some covers – traditional songs don’t really count, do they? Anyway, off we go.

I can’t preface this Feist track any better than John Sakamoto did a few weeks ago when he featured it in his Anti Hit-List:

“Originally a 16th-century hymn, this carol has gone through several major iterations, and Feist has chosen here to limit herself to what are arguably the two least overtly religious verses. Regardless, the cadence of the lyrics makes this a challenge to sing, yet she makes it seem as natural as breathing. Part of a rare Best Buy promotional CD in the U.S., it cries out to be heard by one and all.”

MP3: Feist – “Lo, How A Rose E’re Blooming”

In 1992, The Wedding Present took on the record-setting task of releasing a 7″ single every month for an entire year. The a-side of each was an original tune, the b-side a cover. For their final Christmas single, they chose Elton John’s “Step Into Christmas”.

MP3: The Wedding Present – “Step Into Christmas”

Maybe This Christmas Tree was a holiday album put out by Nettwerk last year to benefit the Marine Toys For Tots Foundation. The whole album is Christmas covers, one of which is Ivy presenting a lovely reworking of Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time Is Here”.

MP3: Ivy – “Christmas Time Is Here”

Finally, thanks to Bradley’s Almanac for this one. Technically, “Frosty The Snowman” isn’t a Christmas song – it’s more just a Winter song. But really, who sings after Christmas is over. Crazy people, that’s who. So I’ll post this Cocteau Twins cover taken from their Snow EP now, or else I’ll have to sit on it for another year. And who knows what could happen in a year? The world could blow up. And then you’d NEVER get to hear Liz Fraser sing in English. And that’s no way to live. Or die. I forget what I was saying.

MP3: The Cocteau Twins – “Frosty The Snowman”

And for more Christmas covers, check out Copy, Right?. My Mean Magpie has also posted a nice mix… actually, pretty much every blog out there has posted or linked some Christmas MP3 mix – linking to them all would be futile (and as of today, pointless), so if you really want more holiday tunes, go to Technorati and swing a stick.

Have a good day.

np – Wheat / Medeiros

By : Frank Yang at 9:20 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. 12/25/05 1:10 pm

     thomaus says:

    Merry Christmas, Frank. On a gifty day, I wanted to say thanks for Chromewaves — a gift you have given to the world. It is very appreciated by myself and, I’m sure, many others.

  2. 12/25/05 4:20 pm

     Frank says:

    thanks, thomaus, I appreciate that.

    and god bless us every one!

  3. 12/27/05 12:22 pm

     eric says:

    I like Ivy, but I was disappointed. It’s hard to improve on Vince Guaraldi’s jazz version.

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