Christmas Cocktails

YOURZ

Feliz Navidad, Happy Hanukkah, Joyeux Noel, Shub Naya Baras or Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan, depending on where you are.

Well, here it is, the last compilation.  Throughout the year, we've had many discussions about the compilations we reviewed.  But for this one, I didn't have a choice.  Mine insisted it had to be this one and when she insists, its pointless arguing.  I was hoping I might find a CD called something like A Very Rock Christmas or Indie Xmas Tunes.  I would have even settled on Metal Yuletide (I can even see the cover of this one - a black christmas tree with razor wire tinsel and grenade-like baubles).  Alas, for all the looking I did, I couldn't find anything.

But this compilation isn't too bad, I suppose.  At the very least, it doesn't make me gag, which is  a good thing.  There are even a few songs on here I actually don't mind.  Lou Rawl's Christmas Is turns up the heat as only he can do while Ray Anthony doing Christmas Kisses gets the toes tapping.  But the one track that does it for me every time would have to be The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole, even though the imagery is completely wrong for us living in the Southern Hemisphere.

I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxed and happy holiday season.  Merry Christmas to all!

VERDICT: TURN IT UP and pass the gravy

MINE

Merry Christmas to all... and here's hoping you'll be having as happy a time as YourZ and I will be enjoying. Among the other traditions we enjoy there'll be a screening of Monty Python's Life of Brian, and the consumption of entirely too much alcohol. But also, I'll be playing this CD. In fact, having to preview it for this review has moved me from "bah-humbug" mode to being positively... things ending in "olly" (Thank you T Pratchett)

I love this collection for its funk, swing and cha-cha. And especially for Kaye Starr's version of  (Everybody's Waiting For) the Man With the Bag, which I've promised myself I'll remember all the words to by, um, today.

But maybe we'll also celebrate the iPod by putting together a list of kind-of Christmas songs. Any suggestions?

VERDICT: TURN IT UP ho, ho, ho

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