Jesus and Mary; What a Great Day

Some of my co-workers and I have been sharing some of our favorite music, rating them, reviewing them and sharing those reviews with one another. I thought I’d share my thoughts on their suggestions (and their thoughts on mine) with you here.

I’m finally getting around to sharing a Christmas album, but first, here’s how I rate things. If I give something one star, it means I don’t think it qualifies as music. Five stars mean I wish I wrote the thing. Most music for me is a three.

John Denver & The Muppets – A Christmas Together (1979)

Oh, Beeker. It’s sad when you’re the highlight of The Twelve Days of Christmas. I’ve said it before, I really hate that song.

I’ve never watched this Christmas special, and I don’t really care to. But I grew up listening to this album. And The Muppets hold a special place in my heart. Kermit taught me how to play the banjo. Or at least inspired me to learn.

Surrounded with the Sound of Laughter

Some of my co-workers and I have been sharing some of our favorite music, rating them, reviewing them and sharing those reviews with one another. I thought I’d share my thoughts on their suggestions (and their thoughts on mine) with you here.

I thought about sharing something Christmas-y, but there’s only one whole Christmas album I really love, so I’ll share that soon. I’m not a total Christmas Curmudgeon, but in the meantime I’m just going share whatever I want.

Anyway, here’s how I rate things. If I give something one star, it means I don’t think it qualifies as music. Five stars mean I wish I wrote the thing. Most music for me is a three.

Barenaked Ladies – Barenaked for the Holidays (2004)

This is one of the few winter holiday albums I have in my iTunes. It’s probably my second favorite. Another one of those albums I probably don’t have to listen to in order to review, but I will. Mostly because I really need stuff to listen to while I work.

Light of the World

Some of my co-workers and I have been sharing some of our favorite music, rating them, reviewing them and sharing those reviews with one another. I thought I’d share my thoughts on their suggestions (and their thoughts on mine) with you here.

A few weeks ago, there were two ideas of how to pick what to share. At the time, we decided to go with something from Rolling Stone‘s 500 100 Greatest Albums of All Time up to May 2012. This week I decided to share something from the other option: an album I think is overrated. Frankly, I’m glad I put this off. I needed a couple of days to think of an album I like, but was over-hyped. At least, when it was first released. But before I tell you what album I thought of, let me tell you what I thought about my coworkers’ suggestions.

Except Tim, who has been sick for days and days decided he didn’t want to go with his own suggestion of something over-rated, and went with his own theme. And then my brother followed Tim’s theme, so now my album is out-of-place.

Apparently the holiday with the most music is coming up.

Anyway, here’s how I rate things. If I give something one star, it means I don’t think it qualifies as music. Five stars mean I wish I wrote the thing. Most music for me is a three.

Twisted Sister – A Twisted Christmas (2006)

My brother shared this with me years and years ago. Tim admitted right up front that the album is cheesy and tacky. Here’s one of my big beefs with Christmas music in general: it’s all just novelty music. Most of it isn’t great, musically. It’s the words and emotion that are most important. I like the song, but I don’t need more than 700 different versions of Silent Night. In a study by Time magazine, that carol has had 733 copyrighted recordings since 1978. Those are the copyrighted recordings. How many people have done their own arrangements, but not recorded them? Or not copyrighted (copy written?) them? Considering it is nearly twice as dominant as Joy to the World (a distant second with 391 recordings to its name)(and not that Joy to the World, either), I’ll bet there have been more than 1,000 different versions. Everybody and their cat has done their own unoriginal (or too original) version.

Anyone Who Speaks Can Say the Same Truth

Some of my co-workers and I have been sharing some of our favorite music, rating them, reviewing them and sharing those reviews with one another. I thought I’d share my thoughts on their suggestions (and their thoughts on mine) with you here.

Here’s how I rate things. If I give something one star, it means I don’t think it qualifies as music. Five stars mean I wish I wrote the thing. Most music for me is a three.

Wye Oak – Shriek (2014)

Chris shared this album because as the year draws to a close, he’s decided it was his favorite album of the year. And I was the first person to know.

This band is similar to Beach House. Woman vocalist, a male band mate, and whatever the two can pull off in the studio. Spacey and melodic. Not as psychedelic as Beach House, and that’s OK.