411 Music Ten Deep 12.23.11: The Top 10 Songs for Christmas

Posted by C.A. Bell on 12.23.2011

From John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and Bing Crosby and David Bowie's "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" to The Kinks' "Father Christmas" and more, 411's Christopher Bell counts down the top 10 songs for Christmas!

The List

I can feel old age creeping in during this time of year. I've passed the child-like excitement over presents. I've gone through the young adult's ultra cool passivity towards the season and mocking derisions on the evils of consumerism. Now for the bad part. I can feel that warmth in the belly start to build from the sight of a classic Saturday Evening Post cover. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up a little when I see the promo for It's A Wonderful Life. The smell of wrapping paper and fresh pine almost makes me giddy. Damnit. I'm becoming a suburban adult, pining for the American pastoral Christmas experience. Well, at least I'll always have one bolt left in my 'quiver of cool'; tunes. Like most things, Christmas music can be really good or really, really bad. I still wake up in a cold sweat remembering the grocery store I worked in during my teens. The Christmas playlist repeating the same Perry Cuomo song over and over again. To this day I'm afraid that the first notes of Wings' "Wonderful Christmas Time" will send me into a homicidal frenzy, like a character in The Manchurian Candidate.

Not any more. I will not abide another Christmas wasted on terrible the worst 'classics'. Someone living today would hardly remember that there was a time in the 1960s when it was almost expected that you release a Christmas album. The result was a lot of surprising people making a lot of good Christmas music. Sure, a lot of us are familiar with the Jackson 5 Christmas album. But, did you know that James Brown has a yule-tide record? Two, actually. There's a Beach Boys Christmas record and (perhaps best of all) the Phil Spector Christmas album. But the good holiday cheer wasn't held to the 60s. Willie Nelson, Jethro Tull, Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, and even Judas Priest's Rob Halford have all made odd but fantastic Christmas albums. This week I'll be taking a look at the best ten modern Christmas songs to spruce up some Festivus spirit. Don't forget to check out our Spotify playlist for all of the great Christmas classics. And away we go...

The Honorable Mentions (And Excuses)

"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" - Aimee Mann
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" - Annie Lennox
"Little Saint Nick" - Beach Boys
"Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" - Bright Eyes
"Joy to the World" - Dave Brubeck
"My Last Christmas" - The Dirtbombs
"We Three Kings" - Halford
"Remember Christmas" - Harry Nilsson
"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" - The Jackson 5
"Signs of Christmas" - James Brown
"Greensleeves" - John Coltrane
"First Snow in Brooklyn" - Jethro Tull
"Little Drummer Boy" - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
"Christmas in Prison" - John Prine
"Suddenly It's Christmas" - Loudon Wainwright III
"Getting Ready For Christmas Day" - Paul Simon
"Thank God It's Christmas" - Queen
"Xmas Lights" - Radar Bros.
"Merry Xmas Everybody" - Slade
"Christmas in Washington" - Steve Earle
"White Christmas" - The Stiff Little Fingers
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!" - Sufjan Stevens
"Santa Baby" - Eartha Kitt
"We Wish You A Merry Christmas" - The Weavers
"The Chipmunk Song" - The Chipmunks
"Merry Xmas Blues" - The Celibate Rifles
"Christmas In Hollis" - Run-D.M.C.
"Pretty Paper" - Willie Nelson
"Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" - The Crystals
"Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" - Darlene Love

The Ten

10. The Staple Singers - "Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas"

The Staple Singers are maybe one of the most influential crossover gospel groups of all time. They had 26 charting singles over the course of their careers, including two number one hits in the United States ("I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again"). They were inducted into the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. Beginning as a group of family singers that toured churches in the South, the patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples led his three girls, Pervis, Yvonne, and Mavis, to fame and fortune. The group has a great deal of historical importance as well. Songs like "Will The Cirlce Be Unbroken" and "Freedom Highway" became the soundtrack of the civil rights movement. A famous photo exists of the group holding hands with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter Paul And Mary, and Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival to sing "This Land Is Your Land" (Dylan once actually proposed to Mavis Staples). Pops always considered the group a purely gospel affair and "Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas" is a pretty good example of that. This great song takes a shot at consumer-oriented holiday celebrations. I'm also a sucker for a good vocal from Pops Staples.

9. Band Aid - "Do They Know It's Christmas"

Oh Bob Geldof, you just care so much. In October 1984, a BBC report by Michael Buerk was aired in the UK, which highlighted the famine that had hit the people of Ethiopia. Boomtown Rats lead singer Bob Geldof (and now of Live Aid fame) saw the report and wanted to raise money. Geldof put together a group called Band Aid, consisting of leading British and Irish musicians who were among the most popular of the era.On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was released four days later.

The 1984 original became the biggest selling single in UK Singles Chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone. It stayed at Number 1 for five weeks, becoming Christmas number one, and sold more than 3.5 million copies domestically. It remained the highest selling single in UK chart history until 1997, when Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997".

The song fully came to my attention in the mid-90s, when a newly formed VH1 would play the video nonstop for every Christmas season. There is some camp value in this selection, but there is also a lot of heart. I genuinely love this song. If it wasn't for this song being successful, we wouldn't have gotten the fantastic Live Aid concerts and even the hilarious heavy metal response group, Hearing Aid.

8. The Waitresses - "Christmas Wrapping"

Probably best known in the U.S. for either their hit single "I Know What Boys Like" or the theme music for TV's Square Pegs, The Waitresses were a great New Wave band from the early 1980s. "Christmas Wrapping" is narrated from the point of view of a busy single woman who is adamant that she will try to sit out the exhausting Christmas period, and not participating in the traditional Christmas activities (except for making dinner). She reveals that during the course of the year, she has attempted to meet up with a man she encountered in a ski shop the previous year. Despite the couple's attempts to meet, a succession of mishaps conspires to keep them apart. Finally on Christmas Eve, the protagonist (after boasting that A&P provided her with "the world's smallest turkey"), in her haste to prepare dinner, realizes that she forgot to purchase cranberries. She runs to a local convenience store, and ends up running into the man. In a wild coincidence, he, too, was making dinner and also forgot to buy cranberries.

The song reached #45 on the UK charts and was subsequently covered by the Spice Girls in 1998, as the B-side of their single "Goodbye" and by the television show Glee sung by the character Brittany for their 2011 Christmas special. I absolutely love Patty Donahue's lead vocal on this song, giving a proper innocence to the song and season.

7. The Kinks - "Father Christmas"

The Kinks' "Father Christmas" comes from fairly humble beginnings. Released as a non-album single in 1977, it tells of a department store Father Christmas (Santa Claus) who is beaten up by a gang of poor kids who tell him to give them money instead of toys, as toys are impractical; and asks that the toys be given "to the little rich boys." At one point, a child asks the narrator to give his/her father a job for Christmas. This is a perfect example of Ray Davies' signature style, exhibiting a scathing criticism of class with a sense of humor. Like a few other Classic Rock figureheads, the guitar-heavy track plays like a response to the burgeoning Punk and Metal movements (not surprisingly, the single's B-Side was "Prince of the Punks"). The song has been covered a number of times by bands including the Gigolo Aunts, Green Day, Warrant, Lit, Bowling For Soup, Save Ferris, Action Action, Everything and OK Go. This is one of the few appearances on the list that I can listen to all year long.

6. Otis Redding - "White Christmas"

"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. While the Bing Crosby version of the song is certainly the one most often tied to "White Christmas", there are countless recordings of the song (at least 62 recordings of note, by my research). Among these include great versions like the Reggae cover from Bob Marley and the Punk send-up from The Stiff Little Fingers.

For me, the definitive recording came from Otis Redding. In 1968, Otis Redding's version of the song was released as a single (posthumously), and reached number 12 on Billboard magazine's special, year-end, weekly Christmas Singles chart in December of 1968. Redding's cover was also featured in the film Love Actually. Anyone familiar with Redding's work past "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay" knows the life that Otis could blow into a cover song. His covers of "Day Tripper" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" are among my all-time favorites. Redding's version of "White Christmas" gave the song a new life. Here you get to see the very essence of Soul music.

5. The Vince Guaraldi Trio - "O Tannenbaum"

You might think you don't know who Vince Guaraldi is, but trust me, you do. Guaraldi was the jazz pianist behind all of the music that helped make Charlie Brown a part of America's collective conscious. The most famous of his compositions for the cartoon was "Linus And Lucy", but only slightly less so was his soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas. Originally released with the 1965 CBS television program, this fantastic Christmas album had several songs that will forever be etched into the memories of any child born into a television home, including "Christmas Time Is Here" and "Skating". For me, it's Guaraldi's take on the classic German traditional about the beauty of evergreens. This song has always been a favorite among children during Christmas time, but Guaraldi gives the song a new depth, a wistfulness. His slower approach (consistent with many of the California Jazz piano greats) to the song provides it with the space to be truly thoughtful. This is the type of music that I'm thankful for having been burned into my memory.

4. The Ronettes - "Frosty The Snowman"

Ronnie Spector is one of my favorite singers ever, and one listen to this will let you know why. She has everything it takes to make timeless music; a trained style, a raw vocal talent, and an almost childlike tone in her voice. In 1963, all three Ronettes, along with every other artist who was signed with Phil Spector, helped him complete what I think is the quintessential Christmas LP A Christmas Gift for You. The Ronettes recorded three songs for the album: "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," "Sleigh Ride," and "Frosty the Snowman." All of the artists sang on the album's finale, "Silent Night," which opened with a spoken message from Phil Spector, thanking everyone for buying the record. The record didn't make many waves on the charts upon it's release, but has become the very definition of modern Christmas music since. If you've seen a Christmas movie since 1985, you've heard a song from this record. In addition to the contributions from The Ronettes there were classic tracks like "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" by The Crystals and "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" by Darlene Love. "Frosty the Snowman" stands out as my favorite thanks to that amazing voice of Ronnie Spector. Originally recorded by Gene Autry in 1950, this song has been recorded many times, but there are so many reasons to prefer this one that I don't even know where to begin. Let's go with it's role in the Lufthansa heist from Goodfellas?

3. John Lennon - "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Now we've come to the part of the list that I can't possibly imagine Christmas without. Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" was released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. The song reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart (where release was delayed until 1972). Ostensibly a protest song about the Vietnam War, it has become a Christmas standard, appearing on several Christmas albums, and was voted the ninth favorite Christmas song in a poll by VH1. The song was re-released in the UK in 1980, shortly after John Lennon's murder, and peaked at number 2.

The lyric is based on a campaign in late 1969 by Lennon and Ono, who rented billboards and posters in eleven major cities around the world that read: "WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko". In 1971, the United States was deeply entrenched in the unpopular Vietnam War. The line "War is over, if you want it, war is over, now!", as sung by the background vocals, was taken directly from the billboards. The melody and chord structure are from the folk standard "Stewball", about a race-horse.

This songs has been covered multiple times by the likes of The Fray, Melissa Etheridge, Celine Dion, and Neil Diamond, but in this case the original is easily the best. This year, as one of America's decade long conflicts has come to a close, "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" takes on a new significance. During his lifetime, Lennon was often taken as a bit of a misanthrope. I think part of the reason this song was became so popular upon his death was because it displays just how much of an optimist Lennon really was. This is his Christmas card for the world. I, for one, can't imagine spending the holiday without it.

2. Bing Crosby and David Bowie "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy"

Yet another entry to the list from a childhood spent watching VH1, my surprise at the existence of this song has never faded. Every time I see the televised clip of this duet, there is still a large part of me that is astounded Bing doesn't try to shoe David off with a broom. The track was recorded in September of 1977 for Crosby's then-upcoming television special, Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas. The pair exchanged dialogue about what they do for Christmas before singing "Little Drummer Boy" with a new counterpoint with original lyrics written for the special, "Peace on Earth." Bowie has since recalled that he only appeared on the show because "I just knew my mother liked him." Buz Kohan was not sure that Crosby knew who Bowie was, but Ian Fraser claimed, "I'm pretty sure he did. Bing was no idiot. If he didn't, his kids sure did." Crosby died on October 14, just over a month after recording the special. In the U.S., the show aired on Nov. 30th, 1977 on CBS. According to co-writer Ian Fraser, Bowie balked at singing "Little Drummer Boy"; "I hate this song. Is there something else I could sing?", Fraser recalls Bowie telling him. Fraser, along with songwriter Larry Grossman and the special's scriptwriter, Buz Kohan, then wrote "Peace on Earth" as a counterpoint to "Little Drummer Boy." Crosby performed "Little Drummer Boy," while Bowie sang the new tune "Peace on Earth," which they reportedly performed after less than an hour of rehearsal.

The song was available for some years as a bootleg single backed with "Heroes,," which Bowie had also performed on the TV special. In 1982, RCA issued the recording as an official single, complete with the dialogue, arbitrarily placing "Fantastic Voyage" from the Lodger album on the B-side. Bowie was unhappy with this move, which further soured his already strained relationship with RCA, and he left the label soon after. The single debuted on the UK singles chart in November 1982, and climbed to position number three on the chart, boosted by a 12" picture disc release. It has since become a perennial on British Christmas compilation albums, with the TV sequence also a regular on UK nostalgia shows. In the United States, "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" became a staple on radio stations during the Christmas season.

On November 9, 2010, Collector's Choice Music released a 7-inch vinyl edition of "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" on red-colored vinyl in the United States. The flip-side of the single contained a Bing Crosby/Ella Fitzgerald duet of "White Christmas", recorded in 1953. The single was limited to 2,000 copies.

"Little Drummer Boy" has always been my favorite Christmas song. While Bing's performance of the song is obviously not the peak of his abilities, the hastily written add-on lyrics for Bowie are pitch perfect. His movement from gentle to powerful is nothing short of beautiful. If there is anything during the Christmas season that will get stuck in my head, it is most likely that very first Bowie lyric from this song. Without a doubt, this is one of the oddest and best duets of all time. Watching it again just now, I had to fight off the tears.

Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy with Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly from Will Ferrell

1. The Pogues and Kristy MacColl - "Fairytale of New York"

Originally featured on The Pogues' 1987 classic album If I Should Fall from Grace with God, "Fairytale of New York" was planned as a duet by Shane MacGowan and Pogues bassist Cait O'Riordan, but O'Riordan left the band in 1986, before the song was completed. The Pogues were at the time being produced by Kirsty MacColl's then husband Steve Lillywhite, who asked his wife to provide a guide vocal of the female part for a demo version of the song. The Pogues liked MacColl's contribution so much that they asked her to sing the part on the actual recording. The song takes the form of a drunken Irish immigrant man's Christmas Eve reverie about holidays past while sleeping off a binge in a New York City drunk tank. After an inebriated old man also incarcerated in the jail cell sings a passage from the Irish drinking ballad "The Rare Old Mountain Dew", the drunken man (MacGowan) begins to dream about the song's female character. The remainder of the song (which may be an internal monologue) takes the form of a call and response between the couple, their youthful hopes crushed by alcoholism and drug addiction, reminiscing and bickering on Christmas Eve in New York City.

MacColl's melodious singing contrasts with the harshness of MacGowan's voice, and the lyrics are sometimes bittersweet—sometimes purely bitter: "Happy Christmas your arse / I pray God it's our last". The lyrics "Sinatra was swinging" and "cars as big as bars" seem to place the song in the 1950s. However, it is possible that the song is actually set in the early 1980s, when one of Sinatra's last chart hits, his 1980 recording of John Kander and Fred Ebb's theme from the movie New York, New York, was a fixture of New York City airwaves and a standard singalong record in the city's many neighborhood bars. The title, taken from author J. P. Donleavy's novel A Fairy Tale of New York, was chosen after the song had been written and recorded.

Twice MacGowan and MacColl sing, "The boys of the NYPD choir still singing "Galway Bay". The New York Police Department (NYPD) does not have a choir, but it does have a Pipes and Drums unit that is featured in the video for the song. The NYPD Pipes and Drums did not know "Galway Bay" and so played a different song for the music video, and the editor put it in slow motion to fit the beat. The video featured Matt Dillon as the NYPD patrolman who arrests the intoxicated MacGowan.

The song was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in November 1987 and swiftly became a hit, reaching #1 in the Irish charts. On December 17, 1987, the Pogues and MacColl performed the song on the BBC's popular television show Top of the Pops, and it was propelled to #2 on the official UK Top 75. For the Top of the Pops appearance, the BBC insisted that MacColl's singing of "arse" be replaced with the less offensive "ass", although as she mimed the word MacColl slapped the relevant part of her body to make it clear what was meant.

Although the song finished 1987 as the 48th best seller of the year despite only a single month's sales, it was denied the Christmas #1 spot by the Pet Shop Boys' cover of "Always on My Mind". MacGowan commented on this in his typically forthright manner: "We were beaten by two queens and a drum machine". MacColl later said that she did not feel they were really in competition with the Pet Shop Boys as they were doing a completely different kind of music. The song was re-released by The Pogues in the UK in 1991 (reaching #36), and again in the UK and Ireland for Christmas 2005, reaching #3 in the UK. All proceeds from the latter release were donated towards a mixture of homeless charities and "Justice for Kirsty", a campaign to find out the truth behind Kirsty MacColl's death in 2000. The song has re-entered the Top 40 every December since 2005. It has now made the Top 10 on four separate occasions, including three times in successive years, a feat no other single can match. Its nine visits to the chart now total 49 weeks on the official UK Top 75.

On December 22, 2005, The Pogues performed the song on a Jonathan Ross Christmas special on BBC One in the UK, with the female vocals taken by singer Katie Melua. This was The Pogues' first television performance of the song since 1988.

Personally, I have no recent memory more fond than walking around the empty streets of my Brooklyn neighborhood with this song on repeat. Of all the Pogues' classics (of which, I think there are many) this is clearly my favorite. The rousing chorus is enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand. The song itself is a wonderful snapshot of a feeling, place, and time. I love this song at any time of year, but hearing it makes me nostalgic for winter. That reason is enough for this to not just be my favorite Christmas song, but one of my favorite songs of all time.

The Comment Bag

Lists like these tend to generate a lot of emotional debate (mostly of the angry kind). That's a good thing. There's is nothing better than a spirited argument about your favorite music. Here I will take a moment to answer some of your thoughtful statements/arguments/concerns/angry rants. Before I get to specific comments from last week's topic, I'd like to go ahead and answer some types of comments that seem to show up every week, regardless of writer, topic, or picks.

Frequently Written Hatemail

Who is this guy? What do you know about music?

I want to list my background so that you have some idea of where I'm coming from. In addition to writing for 411music and Earbuddy over the last three years, I have spent time working as a radio DJ, venue booking scout, and owned my own talent management company. I will tend to talk more about Classic Rock, Indie and Roots/Americana. Having said that, not a single one of those things makes my opinion here more important or definitive than yours. I may use a word like 'best', but it should always be taken as 'best for me'. There is no such thing as an objective 'best' in music, plus I'm too lazy to add those extra words in every paragraph. Let's try to have a little fun.

I don't know any of these artists, so they don't deserve to be on your list/The common person wouldn't know any of these artists.

I find this complaint somewhat quizzical, so I'd like to spend a little time here. First, as a reader, I appreciate it when someone discusses a musician that they love and I've never heard of. For me, that's an easy way to find out about something new I might love. Second, I think this comment represents a wholly impossible responsibility. How in the world am I supposed to know what artists you are familiar with? We live in a day and age when music is being defined by ever increasing and smaller circles of influence. With the biggest selling record of the 2011 selling a full two-thirds less than the biggest selling record of 2001, huge labels are folding on a regular basis and their stable of megastar musicians are downsizing with them. At the same time, the age of podcasts and fan groups allow us to sit completely within our own genre bubble, completely ignorant to things going on around us. I'm just as guilty of this as anyone (I still haven't listened to any record made by an American Idol alumnus). So, it is incredibly easy for any of us to have never heard of an artist that has sold millions of records. I can't possibly be expected to take that into consideration when making a list of the music that I think is best..for me. Making selections based on what I think anyone else would be familiar with is nothing short of dishonest. Third, I'm just not as 'hip' as you are giving me credit for. I defy you to find an artist I have discussed that hasn't also been covered by several other nationally-established media outlets, be it NPR, All Music Guide, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, or NME.

I think sometimes someone might make the assumption that I am attempting to be cool and lord my superior music knowledge over the masses. That really isn't my intent. I take the topic and make the most honest selections I can. If someone finds a new artist to love as a result of something I've written, that's great. If not, that's great too. Todd Snider sometimes uses a quote in concert that I love. It goes something like this, "I'm not here to change anybody's mind about nuthin'. I'm here to ease my own mind about everything."

To finish this, let's play a little word replacement game. Before you start writing that nasty comment about how this is a list full of nobodies ask yourself this. If you see a list of the 'ten best restaurants' in your hometown, do you think that author is wrong because you haven't eaten at one of them? Is an author wrong about every choice they make for a 'top ten countries to visit' list that you haven't personally visited? If you are in a conversation with a co-worker and they suggest a movie they really love, do you call them an idiot because you've never heard of it? Okay, now write the comments anyway and I'll keep ignoring them.

This list should just be called (insulting oversimplification)/I hate your mother and your stupid face...moron.

I understand we get passionate, but I really have no intention of slighting you or your taste in music on my stupid list. Here's the thing, I've done this long enough to expect these kinds of comments. Since they don't usually include what the thinking person might call "an argument", I can only assume the point is to hurt my feelings. I can assure you now that you won't. I think we can all agree that attempting to respond to that level of communication wouldn't do anyone any good, so I won't be doing that. So, you have the right to say anything you like, but it's really just a waste of your time and anger. Maybe go build something instead? An angry birdhouse is a place to put that frustration. The world needs more of those.

The Rational Arguments

Artist - Song. -E!

What can I say? I'm a format rebel.


Good list. Totally and utterly elitist but that is not a criticism at all. As someone with pretentious indie music tastes, i always appreciate finding out about new bands.

My top ten songs of the year (so far), in no particular order:

Noah and the Whale - Give it all back, The Horrible Crowes - Behold the Hurricane, SBTRKT - Wildfire, The Strokes - Under The Cover of Darkness, Cold War Kids - Broken Open, The Vaccines - Norgaard, TV on the Radio - No Future Shock, Frank Turner - Redemption, Yuck - The Wall, Bluejuice - On My Own. -Jimbus

I'm down with these picks, particularly the nod to TV on the Radio. I wanted to include something from that record myself. The bit I'd like to talk about is this term 'elitist'. I don't think that describes us at all. I mean, if these were records had three hundred dollar price tags, or were only available for download if you had an Upper East Side zip code, then maybe it would apply. If anything, we're populists. We're the first people to start bragging about this great band that hasn't played a show outside of their hometown yet. We're the ones talking about people making albums out of their bedroom. Which is more elitist; Beyonce playing a private party at $1500 a head, or Yuck setting up at the Do Drop Inn for a $20 cover? I know for sure which show I'd rather see.


Haven't really thought about a top ten lisdt fr this year off the top of my head:
The Otherside - The Roots, No Church in the Wild - The Throne, Moves Like Jagger - Maroon Five (I know I'll get smashed for this but I find it so freakin fun :P ), The Birds (Part 1) - The weeknd, Don't Carry It All and Rise To Me - The Decemberists, Random Call - Random Axe, Perth and Beth/Rest - Bon Ivor, Gangsta - TuneYards, Ritual Union = Little Dragon. -Chaos Theory

These are some good picks for being from the top of your head. I'm not really behind "Beth/Rest" like some critics are, but I also don't hate it as much as some others. I mostly wonder what the hell he was on when he decided to include that saxophone. I won't be giving you any argument on the Maroon Five pick. I think they are a great Dance Rock band. They don't have to be trying to change the world to make good music, and Maroon Five is definitely not just a studio creation. I'll stand behind you on that argument (if only to avoid the thrown fruit).




Well, that's all for this week. I hope you had as much fun going through the Christmas memories as I did. This one was truly a blast. Don't forget to check out our Spotify playlist for all of the great Christmas classics. Also, make sure to catch the latest columns from my colleagues at Earbuddy here on 411, like Nick Krenn's 3 R's and John Downey's Love/Hate News Report.


No synthesizers were used in the writing of this column.



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