What's New In 2015?

the best and brightest new Christmas releases

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This is something of a bellwether year for me. I feel a change coming on. Mostly, the quantity and quality emanating from holiday music market seems lackluster at best. Not that much has been released, and most of what has has been released is underwhelming - despite new albums from Sharon Jones and Brian Setzer, long overdue reissues from the Soulful Strings and Lynn Anderson, and some great singles from The Both (aka Aimee Mann and Ted Leo), The Bayonets, and Shake Some Action! (their exclamation point, not mine).

Has the manic energy brought on by the huge expansion of the digital market finally started to wane - or at least level off? Have we finally reissued most of the really good stuff? Have Donald Trump and Isis stolen Christmas in a way that the Grinch could never pull off?

Or is it just me? I've been obsessing about this stuff for close to 50 years. I have more records than I can possibly listen to before I die. I suspect it's time for me to stop collecting - and start listening, writing, and documenting on the web like I've wanted to - transforming Hip Christmas into the online treasure trove that I've always dreamt about.

But, more about that later. For now, let's dive in and see what rock 'n' roll Santa brought this year.

New Albums

Hands down, the most exciting new release of the year is Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings' It's A Holiday Soul Party. Jones, if you haven't met her, is a latter day soul queen from Brooklyn, New York, renowned for a string of records on Daptone Records, including previous Christmas singles "Ain't No Chimneys (In The Projects)" (2007), "Big Bulbs" (2013), and "Just Another Christmas Song (This Time I'll Sing Along)" (2014). All of those songs are included on Holiday Soul Party along with a healthy dose of funky new tracks. Not quite groundbreaking - but a solid soul workout head-and-shoulders above anything else released this year.

Having said that, this has been a surprisingly strong year for jazz. The Count Basie Orchestra - minus Mr. Basie - released A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas! featuring guests Johnny Mathis, Ellis Marsalis, Carmen Bradford, and Ledisi. In a similar, if more heavily starched vein, Ellis' most famous offspring, Wynton Marsalis, leads the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra through a Big Band Holidays. Perhaps most surprising, however, is We Two Kings from guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Bobby Previte. The album offers some very non-jazzy treats like the surf-laden "Joy To The World," and treads close to rock territory throughout. The sense of fun is palpable, but the paucity of swing disappoints.

Of course, I have to mention the Brian Setzer Orchestra and their third formal Christmas album, Rockin' Rudolph (meaning that I'm not counting compilations, live albums, videos, etc.). Assuming you like this sort of thing - a lively mix of rockabilly and swing - you love this album. I'm particularly fond of "Yabba Dabba Yuletide," which is either the most brilliant thing I've heard all Christmas - or the dumbest. Regardless, I can't fault Setzer and his band for their musicianship or enthusiasm, though it's definitely starting to feel like they've drunk from this well too often.

Two other rock releases come from opposite ends of the spectrum. Christmas In Reno by Cassie Ramone (née Grzymkowski), a former member of the Vivian Girls, is an utterly indie, willfully lo-fi collection that will appeal to nobody over 30 years of age. Meanwhile, The Quality Holiday Revue Live by Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets will appeal to virtually nobody under the age of 50. The album was recorded during their joint 2014 tour which promoted Lowe's Quality Street (2013) and Los Straitjackets' 'Tis The Season (2002) and Yuletide Beat (2009), all released by Yep Roc. Confusingly, at press time, the MP3 and vinyl were listed separately at Amazon, and the CD was only available through Yep Roc.

Somewhere in between is Electric Christmas by Martin Cilia - who bills himself as "Australia's Premier Surf Rock Guitarist" and combines the fire of Dick Dale with the technical precision of Joe Satriani. Cilia's no youngster - he's been playing since the 70's and is best known for his tenure in the Atlantics, who recorded the Aussie surf classic "Bombora" (1963) before Cilia joined the band. But, Electric Christmas will appeal to youngsters - or at least young at heart - and it stands up pretty well to classics by the Ventures and aforementioned Straitjackets. Get it at Double Crown Records, along with other holiday, surf, and garage goodies.

Similar to last year's All Is Bright, Amazon has a new exclusive playlist, Indie For The Holidays. The concept is transparent as the name - all independent labels, mostly alternative rock. As usual with this sort of thing, it's a mixed bag. Compared to All Is Bright, I'd say that Indie For The Holidays is more consistent but less impressive - the highs aren't as high, but the lows aren't as low. Said highlights include Langhorne Slim's funky "Deck The Halls," Reverend Horton Heat's raucous "Donuts In The Snow," a Jewish rap from The LeeVees & Matisyahu, a quirky cut from Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard, and a surprisingly buoyant New Year's song from Lisa Loeb, "Champagne (I'm Ready)."

Elsewhere, we've got notable rhythm 'n' blues releases from India Arie and the Braxton Family - both too smooth for my taste, though the former includes contributions from the late Joe Sample. Entitled Christmas With Friends, Arie's album often approaches jazz - even if it doesn't quite get there - and features additional cameos from Michael McDonald, Trombone Shorty, Brandy, and others. Other big names releasing Christmas albums this year include "bayou soul" singer Mark Broussard, former jailbait Ariana Grande, international pop star Kylie Minogue, former hair metal icons Matthew & Gunnar Nelson, country thrush LeAnn Rimes, GEICO pitchman Kenny Rogers, boy band The Vamps, drag queen king RuPaul, 60's hitmaker Tommy Roe, professional Scotsmen the Bay City Rollers, disco heroes KC & The Sunshine Band, and San Francisco rockers Train. None of those did much for me - but I am clearly in the minority.

However, I'd love to recommend former Scandal frontwoman Patty Smyth's Come On December since it benefits the Headstrong Project, which supports veterans of 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq. But, I can't. The original title track is fairly memorable, but the rest of it is, well, not. Great cause, though, and it made my Top Ten solely on that basis.

Reissues

The big reissue action this year was in the realm of vinyl - and I stopped collecting that stuff years ago. Well-monied hipsters like it, however, and this year saw vintage 12-inch platters from Gene Autry, John Denver (with and without The Muppets), Vince Guaraldi, Dean Martin, Brian Setzer, Randy Travis, Andy Williams, and Stevie Wonder - the first time it's been available with its original cover art in three decades. Plus, we got the How The Grinch Stole Christmas soundtrack, a new blues collection from Alligator Records, and an old, wonderful soul collection from Atco Records. One company even released little compact discs that look like red-vinyl LP's of classics by the Beach Boys and James Brown, as well as the highly dubious The Star Wars Christmas Album - featuring a very young Jon Bon Jovi, believe it or not.

On the flip side - figuratively, at least - quite a few albums were reissued only in the digital realm - most from the behemoth Universal Music. These include albums as disparate as Christmas With The Jets (1986) and Merry Christmas From Kukla, Fran, And Ollie (1954), Wayne Newton's Christmas Isn't Christmas Without You, an expanded edition of the Supremes' Merry Christmas (1965), plus Lost Christmas 2: Holiday Rarities, which proved to be less rare than its predecessor, and 20 Holiday #1's - which wasn't rare at all.

Something I didn't see coming, however, were two jazz albums - both called Holiday Soul - that showed up exclusively through a website called Pro Studio Masters, which offers FLAC and AIFF downloads, including quite few Christmas albums. Issued by Prestige Records in 1964, these are two real gems - both of them warm, understated trio sessions. They have never been reissued in any format during the ensuing 50 years - though a few tracks popped up on albums like The Christmas Collection (1988). The first, by organist Don Patterson, is my favorite, in no small part due to the contribution of guitarist Pat Martino. But, the second, by pianist Bobby Timmons, is solid, too. I hasten to add that downloading an audiophile-quality album for $17.99 is generally at least as expensive as buying a CD and ripping it yourself. But, this is the only choice we currently have, and my Christmas swung a lot harder as a result.

Vinyl or MP3 or otherwise, almost all the best reissues this year came from one source, Real Gone Music. This indie label has almost single-handedly taken up the cause of vintage Christmas music. In 2015 alone, they accounted for roughly a dozen high quality releases. Many of them fell squarely into the realm of easy listening, but they also included the first truly authentic CD edition of Lynn Anderson's 1971 LP, the best-ever edition of Glen Campbell's 1968 LP, a three-CD set containing the almost-complete Christmas catalog of Johnny Mathis, and the first-ever CD reissue of the Three Suns' 1959 bachelor pad magnum opus, A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas. Given the tenuous nature of the entire music industry, I can only wish them Godspeed.

Most surprising of all, Real Gone reissued the Soulful Strings' The Magic Of Christmas, a 1968 album from Chess Records long forgotten by all but the most ardent enthusiast (like me). It's a happy, smooth-but-soulful album released during an unhappy and turbulent era. A moderate hit at the time, Magic Of Christmas quickly faded - though Barry White would ride largely the same sound to stardom just a few years later.

Moving on, Sony continued their occasionally impressive Classic Christmas Album series, including volumes from Earth, Wind & Fire, Sarah McLachlan, and Celtic Thunder, plus the new-wavy Classic Christmas 80's Album and a more traditional three-CD set simply called Classic Christmas Album. These tend to be albums that are a perfect way to start a collection - but sadly, often maddeningly, short of definitive - let alone "classic." Sony also snuck out an obscure pop album, Swing Bells! Christmas with A Beat (1965) by the Glad Singers, as an MP3 download - no CD, no vinyl. Odd.

Finally, two European collections are more than worthy of note - and perhaps your money. The first, Santa's Funk & Soul Christmas Party Vol. 3, is simply the third in an increasingly obscure series by a mysterious German label called Tramp. Christmas music, you may have guessed, is an abiding obsession of mine, and I haven't heard and don't own any of these tracks! Tramp is rather loose with their annotation, but they do a really good job cleaning up old vinyl sources.

The second, Ghosts Of Christmas Past, is a much more complicated matter. The two-disc set is the umpteenth iteration of an album first released back in 1981 on the Belgian label Les Disques Du Crepuscule. I hoped this edition would prove to be all-inclusive, collecting every song that had ever appeared on the constantly evolving track listing. We got close - but no cigar - in part because the revitalized label has included new recordings by artists on its current roster. But, it also now include both sides of an insanely rare flexi-disc by New Order recorded under the name B Music. Sadly, the tracks aren't very good, though they are very strange. Even worse, I paid a lot of money for the flexi-disc just a few ago....

So, as I inferred at the start, I'm going to take a step back. This year will be the last that I pay close attention to new releases - especially new music. This page will probably exist in some form - but my focus will be on listening to, documenting, and reviewing the past 100 years of recorded holiday music - not the next. My vision for Hip Christmas is ambitious, and that takes time - and, I hasten to add that I don't for this for a living! I want this website to be both an authoritative reference - a online history book and catalog about this strange and wonderful genre of music - and a place where people can listen to and discover what makes it so strange and wonderful.

Thanks to websites like Mistletunes, Christmas Underground, Stubby's House of Christmas, and others, I am confident that new holiday music will continue to be discovered and shared. And, I'll still be here - focusing on the giant pile of records begging for my attention rather than the vast cloud of music on the world wide web.

Singles

This really has been a slow year for singles - even after I filter out my waning enthusiasm. That said, despite the trendiness of vinyl, almost all new Christmas singles are being released digitally, and many of those are distributed through websites like Noisetrade, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud - and I haven't exactly haunted those sites this year. All the same, I've found some winners!

• The Bayonets, Christmas Time Is Cruel
  I just discovered this band of old school rockers and their catchy new single - part Beatles, part Spector. The Bayonets have been featured on Little Steven's Underground Garage.
• The Both, You're A Gift
  Despite her often fierce demeanor, Aimee Mann is a big softie - at least when it comes to Christmas. She's waxed a now-scare digital EP, a not-so-scare album, and, last year, a song with Ted Leo as The Both. This year, we get the sequel.
• The Darkness, I Am Santa
  Remember the Darkness? They were briefly a big deal last decade with their semi-ironic, Queen-derived classic rock posturing, vividly illustrated by their early track "Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)" (2003). Their latest single stays true to that formula while brazenly ripping off the rhythm track of "Do They Know It's Christmas."
• The Dollyrots, Run Rudolph Run
  After compiling an EP's worth of holiday tracks last year, this family act is back with a smoking' cover of Chuck Berry's eternal classic "Run Rudolph Run." As usual, it's offered through sites like Bandcamp and Noisetrade.
• 4 Past Midnight, It's Christmas Time Again
  When I stumbled upon this Glaswegian punk band, I discovered that they had previously recorded another slice of loud-and-fast holiday music. They aren't terribly original, but they're certainly loud and fast - and sometimes that's enough.
• Carly Jamison, Christmas May Have To Be Postponed
  Last year, this New York rocker released not one but four Christmas singles. This year, we'll have to make do with a paltry one - a pounding song about missing reindeer and the pursuant mayhem.
• Rickie Lee Jones, Christmas in New Orleans
  No surprise here, but her first original Christmas song is a bit of a downer - but beautiful in all the ways we've come to expect. It seems to be a meditation as much on her mentor and one-time lover, Tom Waits, as on the holiday or the Big Easy. Taken from her album The Other Side of Desire.
• The Killers, Dirt Sledding
  Las Vegas rock band the Killers have been making Christmas singles for 10 years now, a practice that resulted in an iTunes EP a few years ago. This latest completes their "cowboy trilogy" that began with "Don't Shoot Me Santa" (2007) and "I Feel It In My Bones" (2012). All of these singles have benefited the (RED) project to fight HIV and AIDS.
• Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, The Light Of Christmas Day
  This track might be the first-ever Zeppelin-related Christmas song ever (not counting Dread Zeppelin or mash-ups like "Misty Hop Wonderland"). Sounds more like her than him, but hey, hey, what can I do...
• Cyndi Lauper, Hard Candy Christmas
  According to her publicity, Lauper is in Nashville recording a country album, and that proximity inspired her to record Dolly Parton's best-known holiday song which, people tend to forget, comes from The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas.
• Mike Love, (You'll Never Be) Alone On Christmas Day
  This is something of a return to form after the truly terrible "Santa's Goin' To Kokomo" - more like the Beach Boys best work. Essentially, Love is ripping off the sound Brian Wilson created, but then, so does everybody.
• Phoenix, Alone On Christmas Day
  Not sure how it happened, but this young band got to be in Bill Murray's Netflix Christmas special, and Murray returned the favor on this record, along with co-stars Jason Schwartzmann, Paul Shaffer, and Buster Poindexter. It's a cover of an unreleased Beach Boy track, and sales benefit UNICEF.
• The Shades, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (1966)
  Indie label Numero rescued this Hoosier girl group single from obscurity, issuing both as a 7-inch and download exclusively through their website. Only for completists, really. The a-side is a better performance, but the original b-side is a hoot - "Prancer's Got Some Red Spots," wherein the titular reindeer gets the measles.
• Shake Some Action! Christmas In The Sun
  Naming yourselves after the Flamin' Groovies' best album certainly raises expectations. This Seattle band nearly lives up to that lofty promise with a deft mixture of Beatles jangle and Who crunch, and it benefits Toys For Tots.
• Southern Culture On The Skids, Silver Bells
  No surprises here - just a spirited, rootsy romp through a perennial favorite. A little more traditional and a little less wacky than what I've come to expect from a band prone to throwing fried chicken at their audiences....
• Sparks, Christmas Without A Prayer
  I was dubious that this would actually be that Sparks - the theatrical 70's band who once recorded a song called "Thank God It's Not Christmas." But, it is.
• James Taylor, Snowtime
  Taken from his recent album Before This World, this song makes it sound like Sweet Baby James isn't very fond of the white stuff, as he pines for Mexico, Cuba, and New Orleans, reminiscing that "every note was the antidote to December."
• Holly Beth Vincent, Punk Xmas
  Originally streamed online in 2008, and now available for download, this is a strong, latter-day effort from the singer for new wavers Holly & The Italians, best remembered for "Tell That Girl to Shut Up" (1981).
• Wifee & The Huzz Band, Everywhere It's Christmas Time Again
  Never heard of them till the single popped up, but Wifee & The Huzz Band are vocalists Ruby James and Stephen Cooper fronting a very horny 10-piece band. They describe themselves as "new vintage," and that about covers it. At press time, this track was only available (in multiple formats) via Pledge Music. Also includes a spirited cover of "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas."
• WJLP, At Christmas Time
  I stumbled across this guitar-driven nugget on Bandcamp as merely one of the tracks on Let's Go Ape!, an album by this band from Rotterdam, Netherlands. Don't know much else - but it rocks! (Editor's note: I later learned it was first released as a streaming track for Christmas 2014.)
• Stevie Wonder & Andra Day, Someday At Christmas
  Hard not to be cynical about an iTunes exclusive also used in an Apple commercial, but if there was ever a year that begged for the sentiments expressed in this song - first recorded by Wonder in 1967 - this year is it. Newcomer Andra Day also released "Winter Wonderland" as a solo act.

Those are the good ones, and I'm also very fond of The Drabs' "Santa's Got Toys" and the Felice Brothers' "Carriage," even though I'm not too keen their respective EP's, Here Comes The Joy and Felice Navidad. Finally, of course, there are a lot more singles out there, including these high-profile releases:

• Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, One December Night
• Jessie James Decker, This Christmas
• Freedom Fry, Oh Santa (Bad World)
• The Grapes & Friends, Can I Come Home with You (For Christmas)?
• Macy Gray, All I Want For Christmas
• Amber Hayes, Merry Christmas Darling
  
• Carly Rae Jepsen, Last Christmas
• Jessie J, The Man With The Bag
• Casi Joy, Where Are You Christmas?
• Karen Mav, Take Me Home For Christmas
• William Michael Morgan, White Christmas
• Seal, This Christmas

My Christmas List

Anyway, the list below is a look at all the new albums that I think will be of interest to people who love holiday music that rocks, rolls, swings, or twangs - meaning that it is neither a list of my recommendations nor a comprehensive list of new releases. Hope you find it useful. What have I missed? Drop me a line...

Randy Anthony

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