I know....it's early. But i'm a sucker for the holidays. I prefer the traditional albums but always open for any recommendations past or present. I broke out this classic this morning.....Cheers guys!
I feel you. Both of my parents are gone....i just turned 50....they passed away relatively young. These tunes are all i have to get me through the holidays...depressing or not. Makes me want to travel back in time and be a kid again.
My post was a joke... But serious too. I'm 38 and my parents passed away very young too. Actually, I never liked Christmas songs anyway, but well, whatever. Happy Chritsmas!
John Klein's A Christmas Sound Spectacular was one of the most gorgeous and truly unique holiday albums from the Golden Age Of Christmas. RCA Victor issued this album originally in 1959 on their iconic Living Stereo brand and the Nipper label was so confident about its prospects that they issued a written money back guarantee that was attached to the vinyl album. I had a major role in getting this fantastic album remastered and reissued on CD, along with Mr. Klein's splendid followup holiday album in 1964, Let's Ring the Bells All Around The Christmas Tree. A Christmas Sound Spectacular featured a fantastic group of New York studio orchestral players as well as the largest carillon in the world that could play almost 1500 perfectly tuned bronze cast bells at the touch of Mr. Klein's hands. I wrote the liner notes as well. I cannot recommend this marvelous twofer CD enough. Mike Piacentini remastered the project at Battery Studios in New York from first generation master tapes that were located by Sony Music's archival team in Iron Mountain.
A leftover chestnut from 2019: Mary Fahl's cover of Joni's "Urge For Going" (aren't you glad it wasn't "River" one more time...?):
You know this time of the year is supposed to make people feel good, but I don’t and haven’t for years. If anything, I’m reminded of just how alone I am. Sometimes music can’t even get me out of the hole I find myself in from time to time.
The Ukrainian carols won't cheer you up, they are very stark and Cold War, but also unspeakably beautiful. The erasure and Tracey Thorn might be a bit more cheerful.
No question, there's a lot of pressure put on lonely people this time of year, "being expected" to follow the crowd to jollyville when their hearts aren't in it. The plethora of Christmas radio, Christmas movies all over cable, and Christmas shopping often just makes it worse. This time of year is a better time to do one's best to just find somebody to relate to, tell your story to, and listen to theirs. You don't have to force yourself to ho-ho-ho with Mr. or Ms. Right, just...let somebody in. You don't even have to force yourself, or anybody else, to "celebrate". Just connect with somebody. You need this. You deserve this.
I have no idea what you might be going through my friend, but judging from the huge number of likes you have received over the years, it sounds like you have touched far more people than you realize. I just got out of the emergency room two days ago and my brother got out the day before and is now confined to his bed with a back injury for the next few months. This has been a very emotional and trying year for so many of us, but we are rounding the corner, I do believe. I find music is quite therapeutic and always gotten me through some very sad times. Please know you are not alone as almost all of us have felt that way at one time or another. You may be just one day or one minute away from meeting someone that forever changes your life in a beautiful way.
Love Comes Home by Aloe Blacc has been my favourite Christmas song of the past year. Other than that, really enjoy songs like Christmas in the Room by Sufjan Stevens
Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, though as I get older, it is harder and harder to feel the absolute giddiness and joy I felt as a child. But I never stop trying to feel it, and the music is essential to me. When we decorate and I am in the spirit, I exclusively play Christmas music until just after Christmas day. Just reading this thread has made me want to check some things out, such as the John Klein album. I am going to search for some some of the other ones later to get a feel for them.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. My parents had this, or a version of it. I’ll enjoy hearing this properly again after so many years, in just a few weeks time!
Traditional, you say? Well, it isn't, but also it is: Joel Paterson channeling Les Paul. This whole album is incredible.
I’ll be playing this happy little tune a lot around yule time: The song is best known as "Merry Merry Christmas" but the official English title is "Requiem for the Phantasma". The Romanji title is "Kogane no Seiya Sousetsu ni Kuchite" which means "Golden Holy Night Rotting into the Frost and Snow". The lyrics are wishing a merry Christmas to a dead lover and hoping to be with him someday under the snow. Other than the Japanese lyrics the only hint of the darkness of this song is the world going dark before Hatsune Miku can finish the final line, "I love y...". Appropriate to pandemic season, Miku almost appears to be wearing a mask. The song is by Deadball-P. Most of Deadball’s songs are stealth downers.