By: Colin Roose, News Editor
Christmas and folk. This is the music we get the day before Halloween. No Rob Zombie, no Alice Cooper, but chestnuts roasting on an open fire and a man with a violin.
Alright, well, Neil Young can make some pretty good sweater music. But Christmas albums? Seriously? Who decided that October 30 was a good time to start singing about marshmallows for toasting and caroling out in the snow and scary ghost stories…oh.
Anyway, let's start with the man still searching for a heart of gold. Neil Young's newest album Psychedelic Pill is the first album of new material with his backing band Crazy Horse since 2003's Greendale, and accordingly is a rougher, more jam-centric album than the other six solo albums he's done since then. And if that seems like a lot of work for a 66-year-old man in eight years, consider that this is his 35th record overall. That's not even counting his various collaborations with Crosby, Stills and Nash or Buffalo Springfield. The man has been a slave to you, people. If nothing else, he deserves the opportunity to reminisce about the first time he heard "Like a Rolling Stone."
The other workhorse this year is Andrew Bird, for whom it did not suffice to release just the hour-long Break It Yourself earlier this year. The companion EP Hands of Glory adds an additional 35 minutes of re-recordings and strum-strummy covers of old singer-songwriter music. If the whole laid-back group-chorus old-time sleepy violin sound appeals to you, you've probably already known what Andrew Bird is up to and I'm talking to myself now. Actually, I must confess that I am not familiar with Mr. Bird's considerable output, despite his appearance at the Nelsonville Music Festival this year. Maybe I'd better not admit I listened to Mumford & Sons for the first time this past weekend before the folk community beats me with mandolins.
And so, the Christmas albums. I'd like to direct your attention to the left to take a look at the miracle of Photoshop that is Cee-Lo's Magic Moment. The Gnarls Barkley singer has now apparently taken the place of Santa Claus, flying through the night with his sports car pulled by a majestic array of steeds. Or maybe this is his way of telling us he's a brony? But anyway, he duets with such varied talent as Christina Aguilera, B.o.B. and The Muppets.
If flamboyant Vegas style rap does not immediately spring to mind when you think of the holidays, there is also Rod Stewart, who has taken a break from his copious renditions of the Great American Songbook to make an even more friendly album for Mom and Dad called Merry Christmas, Baby. On the other hand, there is an innovative Yuletide-indie crossover by Everything But the Girl vocalist Tracey Thorn. It may be called Tinsel and Lights and have song titles like "Maybe This Christmas" and "Snow," but it's actually mostly original songs and has a paranoid post-punk sound. Really. Well, I think it's about damn time someone tried to unseat "Same Old Lang Syne" as the newest Christmas song to be played on every FM station.
There's also Flyleaf this week, who are releasing their last album with singer Lacey Mosley, and Lulu Gainsbourg, the son of French popmeister Serge Gainsbourg. Other than that, well…if you like Toby Keith…
Ok, I'm going to end this before the folkies start shouting "Judas!" at me.
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