Best Christmas songs of 2009 (so far)
It’s that time of year again. Whether dealing with the kind of person who starts listening to carols the first time the temperature drops below fifty or a stickler who’s obsessed with waiting until Thanksgiving’s had its moment to shine, there’s no avoiding Christmas music now that December’s made its entrance. Here are some of the songs and albums showing up now that the time for mistletoe and remixing the same twelve standards is upon us:
Bob Dylan kicked off his own Christmas celebration even before Halloween had a chance to get going. His holiday album, “Christmas In The Heart,” is something Dylan’s produced for charity purposes. All current and future royalties from sales will be donated to Feeding America, an organization dedicated to providing meals for people in need during the holiday season. The video features Dylan singing and dancing at a Christmas party in a Santa hat, which is either terrifying or hilarious, depending on how your interpret his unwavering stoicism throughout the whole thing. Bob Dylan will do a jig with Santa Claus, but don’t expect him to be joyful about it.
Julian Casablancas covers “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” this year, the Saturday Night Live classic. Although there’s no video yet, we can only hope that maybe Andy Samberg (with whom Casablancas appeared on The Lonely Island song “Boombox”) and a few other SNL players today might join in for an updated performance, complete with a rendition of Tracy Morgan’s underwhelmed dance to the tune.
Pet Shops Boys‘ Christmas EP drops December 14th. In the meantime, they’ve set up a YouTube advent calendar to tease listeners with snippets of the new version of their single “It Doesn’t Often Snow At Christmas” through December 7th, when the song is released in full.
Amazon is continuing with their second annual “25 Days Of Christmas” free mp3 giveaway. There are already tracks from Tori Amos and Christian-rock band Casting Crowns up, but the list of songs is also set to include everything from well-known tracks like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s “Mr. Heatmiser” to a new, disco-funk version of “Christmas Tree” from Lady Gaga. The way she’s writing it, not even this holiday can’t be improved by a little sexuality.
The Killers released their fourth Christmas single for (RED) with the song “Happy Birthday Guadalupe” at the beginning of the month as well. They have some help from touring partners Wild Light and Mariachi El Bronx, giving it a different feel from their previous efforts, not to mention Luke Perry taking time off from being generally irrelevant this decade to serve as the video’s protagonist.
Of course, for those of us who aren’t quite moved by the new offerings for 2009, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has been remixed, yet again. Here’s something you liked in 1994, but now it’s techno! So it’s like new again. Happy holidays?
