What's New In 2024? Hip Christmas Music (www.hipchristmas.com)

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Christmas is upon us, and this year's list of new releases is still growing! As I write this, most of the new physical releases - vinyl, CD, and cassette - are nestled snug in their racks. But in the digital realm, we'll see many more throughout the season - right up to the big day, in fact. On this page, you'll find a curated list of the year's best and/or most notable Christmas music - which is to say, hardly exhaustive. It includes reissues and compilations, new albums, and singles and tracks, plus my personal Top 10 Albums and Top 25 Singles.

Be aware that I focus on "legacy artists," so I encourage you to visit my festive friends like Mistletunes, Christmas Underground, and Christmas A Go Go who have their fingers on the pulse. In the meantime, what am I missing, fellow Christmas fanatics? Drop me a line... Of course, happy holidays, stay safe, and follow me at Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!

Randy Anthony

This Just In!

Top 10 Albums

As the Carpenters used to say, we've only just begun. But, here's my take on the best Christmas albums of 2024 - though earth-shaking releases could drop at any moment. Still, these were tough choices. As has been the case in recent years, there's been a deluge of good-to-classic album reissues - mostly on vinyl - including fine platters by JD McPherson, Ray Charles, Keb' Mo', Andrew Bird, Mark Lanegan, Kate Bush, Nick Lowe, Joel Paterson, and Fred Schneider. But, as usual, I am less than excited about most of the new stuff, including high-profile albums by Alicia Witt, Clay Aiken, Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Hudson, Steve Perry, Kelly Clarkson, and Little Big Town. Yawn. But, you know, eye of the beholder and all that - so here they are, in alphabetical order by artist.

James Brown / The Complete James Brown Christmas
Compiled in 2010 by Universal's generally laudable Hip-O division, The Complete James Brown Christmas was originally issued on two compact discs, and it culled every single holiday track the Godfather of Soul ever waxed for King Records. This included three albums - James Brown & His Famous Flames Sing Christmas Songs (1966), Soulful Christmas (1968), and Hey America It's Christmas (1970) - plus assorted singles, b-sides, and rarities. This year, it gets reissued on three LP's by boutique vinyl specialist Jackpot Records. Either way, The Complete James Brown Christmas is, in a word, perfection. Another fine vinyl reissue this year is Brenda Lee's A Rockin' Christmas, which compiles her complete Decca Christmas recordings - on pink vinyl! It mirrors her CD compilation, Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree: The Decca Christmas Recordings (1999). And then, we also get new collections by the Carpenters, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra - so there's no shortage of ways to spend your excess cash!

Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom / A Peace Of Us
Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Dean Wareham is the founder of the semi-legendary jangle pop band, Galaxie 500, which recorded a trio of influential albums as the alternative rock movement was coalescing. In 1992, Wareham started a new band, Luna, that worked a more chill, sophisticated, even continental vibe - often characterized as dream pop. Singer and bass player Britta Phillips joined in 2000, and the two eventually became a duo - musically and maritally - about the time Luna broke up. Dean & Britta have recorded several Christmas songs over the years in various formats, and all of them are included on A Peace Of Us, the duo's first Christmas album. They've worked before with electronic artist Sonic Boom (aka Pete Kember of Spacemen 3), and he gets equal billing here. The album includes four previously released tracks and 10 new songs including unusual covers like Dan Berman's "Snow Is Falling In Manhattan," Randy Newman's "Snow," Eddy Arnold's "Christmas Can't Be Far Away," and Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December." Get vinyl at Bandcamp and digital at Amazon and around the web.

Ben Folds / Sleigher
Back in the 90's, I viewed Ben Folds and his group, the Ben Folds Five (consisting of just three guys), as a bunch of smartass whippersnappers. Over the ensuing three decades, I've come to see that not only was I wrong, but Ben Folds is a singer, songwriter, and pianist of immense talent across a daunting range of musical styles. He is a smartass, though, and humor is often part of his music - frequently alongside deep pathos. That could be said of his previous holiday singles, "Lonely Christmas Eve" (2000) and "Bizarre Christmas Incident" (2002), and it's all over his first-ever holiday album, Sleigher. It includes a few nifty covers, a couple of dreamy instrumentals, and a goof about artificial intelligence that you only need to hear once. But, it's the four remaining original songs that form the heart of the album. Christmas time finds us "dazed from the last weird trip 'round the sun," and that's when Ben Folds really digs deep. Sleigher is available on CD, vinyl, and digital at Amazon and Bandcamp, while Barnes & Noble has an exclusive red vinyl edition.

Jethro Tull / The Christmas Album: Fresh Snow At Christmas
I'm not the biggest Jethro Tull fan, and I'm definitely not the biggest fan of their 2003 Christmas album. It's got an interesting new song or two, plus new versions of multiple songs from earlier in their career, most notably "A Christmas Song" (1968) and "Ring Out Solstice Bells" (1976). But, their new deluxe treatment of that album is genuinely impressive. Fresh Snow At Christmas is a massive four-disc (plus DVD) reissue including the entire album in both its original mix and a new remix, and then live performances from 2006 and 2008. And, the DVD is pretty much the whole thing all over again, but in high-resolution audio. They've also released a double-LP vinyl edition with just the 2024 remix. In the same vein, Kate Bush has released an illustrated "Polar Edition" of her 2011 album, 50 Words For Snow, a sort of Christmas-adjacent meditation on winter.

Phantom Planet / Maybe You Still Call It Christmas (EP)
At one point, I thought Phantom Planet was going to save the world. Seriously. I was young and stupid, but their mix of classic power pop sensibilities with alternative rock ennui seemed like it could unite us in a meaningful way. I was wrong, and Weezer was better, but I still love Phantom Planet - even if they went largely moribund for the last two decades. Around 2020, however, they came back to life, and in 2023, they gave us "Maybe You Still Call It Christmas," a new digital single that was easily the best holiday song of their career. This year, we get a new EP with last year's poignant title track and three new songs. It was initially released exclusively on 12-inch vinyl in two cool colors and a limited edition of just 500. Later in the season, Phantom Planet released a new version of "Maybe You Still Call It Christmas" with singer Sarah McLachlan, added it to the EP, and released it for download and streaming.

Sunturns / Christmas III
The Sunturns are a self-proclaimed Norwegian super-group featuring members of five bands you haven't heard of - unless you're from Norway, and maybe even if you are. They are, indeed, devoted to making Christmas music, and Christmas III is their (surprise, surprise) third such effort, following the sunny Christmas (2011) and somewhat darker Christmas II (2015). (Both albums were reissued in tandem by their new record company, London-based Fika Recordings.) Broadly speaking, I find their music to be a bit twee and precious, but when they catch a good beat and a fetching melody, the Sunturns can capture my heart. Or, as they say, "That's what you get when you teach a Norwegian how to play guitar." On Christmas III, I'm particularly fond of relative rockers "Crash Course Christmas" and "Back In Town," the mid-tempo "First Winter," the cute but adventurous "Turtle Neck," and the tender ballad "The Day Before The Day." Get vinyl on Bandcamp and digital on Amazon and around the web.

Tower Of Power / It's Christmas
One of those sprawling soul/funk outfits that proliferated in the 1970's, Oakland-based Tower Of Power was responsible for hits like "You're Still A Young Man," "So Very Hard To Go," and their statement of purpose, "What Is Hip." Their horn section was so renowned that they became a cottage industry as session men. Amazingly, the band has persisted all the way to the present day, led by founding member Emilio Castillo. This year's new release, It's Christmas, started off in 2023 as a CD EP (now deleted) sold exclusively through the band's website. This year, it's been expanded into a full album, with four new songs and beefed-up packaging, including CD, colored vinyl, and digital options. It's Christmas consists mostly of traditional holiday standards, and it has a fairly mainstream, if soulful, sound - sometimes veering too far into "smooth jazz" territory for my tastes. There's only one full-blown original song, "It's Christmas (A Long Way From Home)" - a ballad - plus a nod to Hanukkah with a funky take on "Maoz Tzur" (aka "Rock Of Ages"). So, on the whole, I'd give it a solid B-minus - a minor work from a major group, but a must-own for fans of the genre.

The Weeklings / Christmas
The Weeklings are four guys from New Jersey who, quite plainly, love the Beatles. They play both kinds of music: covers of Beatle songs and original songs written in the style of the Beatles. They are also four accomplished musicians with résumés dotted by names like the Electric Light Orchestra, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and (wait for it) Paul McCartney. More to the point, the Weeklings also love Christmas, and they've released four holiday singles over the past few years - songs like "Revolution Wonderland," which recasts "Winter Wonderland" in the style of the Beatles' "Revolution" (with elements of both versions, for you Beatle fanatics). All four are included on the band's first full-length holiday album, simply titled Christmas, along with 12 more tracks; five of those tracks, however, are short interludes, which leaves us with seven new, full, fab songs. Available at Amazon for download or streaming and on compact disc.

various artists / The Very Best Of Hi-Fi Christmas Party
Vandelay Records is an ephemeral power pop label centered around producer and musician Dan Pavelich, a member of the Bradburys and the Click Beetles. The label is located in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Pavelich also operates Shabby Road, a recording studio. Since 1999, Vandelay has released just a dozen or so records, most of them featuring Pavelich. But, four of those records were Christmas compilations including Hi-Fi Christmas Party (2002), Hi-Fi Christmas Party Volume 2 (2006), and Hi-Fi Christmas Party Volume 3 (2010), plus Christmas Without Cancer (2013). All were released only on compact disc, and they featured power pop icons like Lisa Mychols, Dom Mariani, the Spongetones, the Grip Weeds, the Jigsaw Seen, Bill Lloyd, Don Dixon, Marti Jones, Jim Babjak of the Smithereens, and Joey Molland of Badfinger. More recently, Vandelay has partnered with Futureman Records, a more prolific Detroit-based label that releases power pop both old and new. This year, they give us The Very Best Of Hi-Fi Christmas Party, a digital album featuring roughly half of the tracks from the Hi-Fi Christmas Party discs. The three original discs are very good - if occasionally too homemade for my tastes - but if you are disinclined to chase down the CD editions, this new Futureman release is an easy way to catch up. Most of the aforementioned names are represented, and 100% of the proceeds benefit the Versiti Blood Research Institute in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

various artists / 1960's Christmas Classics
Last year, Sony released three whole volumes of 1950's Christmas Classics, clearing well more than a hundred dusty tracks out of their vaults - many of which had never been reissued in the digital age. Sony owns the masters of Columbia, RCA, and their legions of associated labels, so those are some big, deep vaults. This year, we get 1960's Christmas Classics, which I hope is the first of a series. Sony did that last year - released the first volume without calling it the start of a series, then dropped two more volumes later in the season. So far, there's been no word on that, but they did release 1940's Christmas Classics Vol. 1... Anyway, be aware, most of the music in the series to date leans heavily towards what we now call "easy listening," which is hardly my speed. But, there have been some truly "hip" gems amidst the dross, including rare tracks by Barry Richards, the Chambers Brothers, and Bud Logan on 1960's Christmas Classics, and some Raymond Scott tracks on 1940's Christmas Classics. Nearly all of the songs will be new to most listeners. Most of them were, in fact, new to me - and you may have noticed that I'm fairly obsessive about this stuff. Anyway, like last year, these collections are available only for download and streaming, and Sony continues to reissue all sorts of deep catalog titles. There are way too many to mention, but they've restored complete albums by Sammy Kaye, the Three Suns, Slim Whitman, and Andy Williams, among others (see list below).

Honorary Top 10 Album: Have Yourself A Merry Indie Christmas Volume IV
I did my best to support this project the last few years as they released the first three volumes, all of them stuffed to the gills with great indie rock holiday music from artists like Swansea Sound, the Pearlfishers, Suzzy Roche, Crocodiles, Helen Love, Shinyribs, Eddi Reader, Sunturns, Lisa Mychols, and the Futureheads. I mean, well over 100 tracks supporting Crisis, a UK charity working to support the homeless - what's not to like? Curator Kevin McGrath said the third volume was supposed to be the last, but - surprise! - we get one more. It came along late in the season, and I didn't want to kick any of my other picks off the list, so I am making it an "honorary" album - if only for its good intentions. This fourth and final (or so he says) volume is the biggest yet, topping out at 65 tracks with artists as notable as the Raveonettes, Whyte Horses, April March, the Hannah Barberas, and TV Smith, former leader of punk icons the Adverts.

Top 25 Singles & Tracks

Here's an early, tentative list of my favorite Christmas singles and tracks for 2024 (in alphabetical order by artist). Many more will arrive before the big day, so this list will almost certainly evolve.

Reissues & Compilations

New Albums

Singles & Tracks

Previous Years. We've been compiling this "what's new?" list for a while, going back to 2003 (Gary Hoey, Jackson 5), 2004 (Chris Isaak, Dwight Twilley), 2005 (Diana Krall, Brian Setzer), 2006 (Aimee Mann, Bootsy Collins), 2007 (Smithereens, Darlene Love), 2008 (Weezer, Pretenders), 2009 (Bob Dylan, Los Straitjackets), 2010 (James Brown, Shelby Lynne), 2011 (Killers, Carole King), 2012 (Rod Stewart, Polyphonic Spree), 2013 (Salsoul Orchestra, Nick Lowe), 2014 (Blue Rodeo, Earth Wind & Fire), 2015 (Sharon Jones, Brian Setzer), 2016 (Loretta Lynn, Frankie Valli), 2017 (Gwen Stefani, Beatles), 2018 (Eric Clapton, Old 97's), 2019 (Los Lobos, Ramsey Lewis), and 2020 (Goo Goo Dolls, Buck Owens), 2021 (Amanda Shires, Lucinda Williams), 2022 (Kat Edmonson, Andy Partridge), and 2023 (Cher, Joel Paterson).

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