Various Artists - Now That's What I Call Christmas (2015 Edition) (3-Disc set)

Picked this one up a couple of years ago, one of the Now! Christmas series released in England...

I don't think I need to elaborate much regarding this offering; you pretty much know what you're getting here - a mixture of modern and classic renditions of traditional Christmas songs by popular current and past artists, along with some most recent holiday-related tunes. In this set, there's some great stuff (like Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and Ella Fitzgerald's "The Christmas Song"), some good stuff (such as The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" and Burl Ives' "Holly Jolly Christmas")... and some utter crap, including Band Aid's cringe-inducing "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (featuring what is possibly the all-time most reprehensible lyric in holiday song history - Bono belting out "Well tonight, thank God it's them instead of youuuuuu!") and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You", one of the most universally despised Christmas songs ever.

[This set also includes the most brutal, tear-inducing, Christmas-buzz-killing song of all time, in my opinion: Nat King Cole's "The Little Boy Who Santa Claus Forget" - I listened to this all the way through ONCE many Christmases ago, and I was depressed for the rest of the day! I fervently recommend you skip over that one, for your own sake.]

Here's the lineup, in case you're interested:

Disc 1:

  1. All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey

  2. Last Christmas - Wham!

  3. Fairytale of New York - the Pogues Feat. Kirsty MacColl

  4. Driving Home for Christmas - Chris Rea

  5. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Roy Wood & Wizzard

  6. Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade

  7. Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord - Boney M

  8. Step Into Christmas - Elton John

  9. Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney

  10. Christmas Lights - Coldplay

  11. 2000 Miles - the Pretenders

  12. Stop the Cavalry - Jona Lewie

  13. Santa Baby - Kylie Minogue

  14. Lonely This Christmas - Mud

  15. Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens

  16. Underneath the Tree - Kelly Clarkson

  17. Christmas Wrapping - the Waitresses

  18. One More Sleep - Leona Lewis

  19. December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas) - George Michael

  20. Do You Hear What I Hear? - Whitney Houston

  21. Do You Want to Build a Snowman? - Kristen Bell, Agatha Lee Mon & Katie Lopez

Disc 2:

  1. White Christmas - Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers & John Scott Trotter & His Orchestra

  2. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra

  3. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley

  4. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - Dean Martin

  5. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee

  6. Frosty the Snowman - the Ronettes

  7. Winter Wonderland - Doris Day

  8. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - the Crystals

  9. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - the Ronettes

  10. The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot - Nat King Cole

  11. Sleigh Ride - Ella Fitzgerald

  12. Merry Christmas Baby - James Brown

  13. What Christmas Means to Me - Stevie Wonder

  14. Someday at Christmas - the Jackson 5

  15. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Andy Williams

  16. Senor Santa Claus - Jim Reeves

  17. Marshmallow World - Darlene Love

  18. Here Comes Santa Claus - Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans

  19. Never Do a Tango with An Eskimo - Alma Cogan

  20. Lonely Pup (In a Christmas Shop) - Adam Faith

  21. Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt

  22. Baby, It's Cold Outside - Ella Fitzgerald with Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five

  23. I'll Be Home for Christmas - Perry Como with Russ Case & His Orchestra

  24. Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives

  25. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - the Crystals

  26. Little Saint Nick - the Beach Boys

  27. The Bells of St. Mary - Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans

  28. The Christmas Song - Ella Fitzgerald

Disc 3:

  1. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir

  2. Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid

  3. The Power of Love - Frankie Goes to Hollywood

  4. When a Child Is Born - Johnny Mathis

  5. O Holy Night - Il Divo

  6. Walking in the Air - Aled Jones

  7. Silent Night - Nat King Cole

  8. O Come All Ye Faithful - Perry Como

  9. Silver Bells - Jim Reeves

  10. O Little Town of Bethlehem - Burl Ives

  11. Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy - Bing Crosby & David Bowie

  12. A Winter's Tale - David Essex

  13. In Dulci Jubilo - Mike Oldfield

  14. A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris de Burgh

  15. In the Bleak Midwinter - Bert Jansch

  16. Ring Out Solstice Bells - Jethro Tull

  17. Gaudete - Steeleye Span

  18. We Wish You a Merry Christmas - the Weavers

  19. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Blue Blood

  20. The Twelve Days of Christmas - the Spinners

  21. Auld Lang Syne - Susan Boyle

  22. Happy New Year - ABBA

As you can see, overall there's more good music than bad here... and with three discs worth of music to choose from, everyone in your household will find SOMETHING here that they like. Just fire up this set as your Christmas Day background music, and tune out what doesn't float your particular holiday boat at that moment. I know that's not a completely ringing endorsement of the album... but as far as Xmas sets go, you could do a lot worse.

I offer for your enjoyment this holiday season the 2015 edition of Now That's What I Call Christmas, a three-disc set released by Universal Music Group on November 15th, 2015, and distributed by Sony Music Entertainment. Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.

A Merry Christmas to you all!

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Various Artists - 1-2-3-4: Punk & New Wave 1976-1979 (5 Discs)

For such a precedent-shattering and groundbreaking genre, the Golden Age of punk rock was relatively short-lived. Although it's tough to nail down a definitive start to the punk era, 1975 seems to be the consensus, based on the rise that year of such New York City bands/musicians as The Ramones, Patti Smith and Television, and the emergence of The Buzzcocks and The Sex Pistols in the UK. But long before the end of the '70s, punk was already disintegrating, splintering into several different genres - post-punk, New Wave, hardcore, No Wave, Oi!, psychobilly, etc.

Even during its heyday, "punk" was more about the methods, means and attitude by which these musicians approached their music, rather than defining a uniform sound and approach. The Clash, The Jam, Talking Heads, X and The Damned are all considered some of the classic bands to come out of that era, but you'd be hard-pressed to come up with an all-encompassing description/definition of "punk" from their music. This wide variation in the sound and style of what was considered "punk" is one of the genre's strengths, but an aspect that makes the era particularly difficult to summarize and anthologize.

Now, I own a gazillion single- and multi-disc punk and New Wave compilations: Burning Ambitions: A History of Punk (Vols. 1 & 2); Rhino's D.I.Y. series from the mid-90s; The Number One Punk Album, and so forth and so on. I've got overviews of American punk, British punk, Australian punk - you name it. Some of them are pretty good, most of them are OK/so-so, and a couple are absolutely terrible. None of them serve to effectively capture the entire era. And for years, I figured that there would never be a release of any length that could do so. That is, until the late 1990s.

I recall reading about this set in the late winter/early spring of 1999, when I lived in Texas. There was an article about its upcoming release in one of the UK music magazines I regularly read back then - Q, the NME . . . I don't recall which one. But I do recall the glowing review the magazine gave to this box set; it completely whetted my appetite for it. There used to be a Virgin Megastore at the mall near where I used to live in Grapevine - I made a beeline down to it and immediately put in a special order for the set, since it was not slated to be released in the States. The thing finally arrived in May, a month after its UK release - a long black slab with protruding silver studs numbered "1, 2, 3, 4" on the front of the box, containing five enveloped CDs of music and a mammoth book of liner notes containing details on every single song.

Now, I'm usually against overarching compilations in general; I have been disappointed time and time again by these sorts of overviews falling short of their intentions. In my opinion, the only music comps in the past fifty years that have even come close to thoroughly cataloging and celebrating a specific genre are as follows:

1. The Nuggets garage rock compilation;
2. Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music;
3.  . . . and this one.

The compilers do their best to pull together most of the highlights (and a few low-lights) from those years; check out the song lineup:

Disc 1:

1. Complete Control - The Clash
2. Anarchy In The UK - The Sex Pistols
3. New Rose - The Damned
4. Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
5. Shadow - The Lurkers
6. Thinking Of The USA - Eater
7. Ain't Bin To No Music School - The Nosebleeds
8. Borstal Breakout - Sham 69
9. I Hate School - Suburban Studs
10. GLC - Menace
11. One Chord Wonders - The Adverts
12. Right To Work - Chelsea
13. Johnny Won't Go To Heaven - The Killjoys
14. Bone Idle - The Drones
15. Where Have All The Boot Boys Gone - Slaughter & The Dogs
16. C.I.D. - UK Subs
17. Can't Wait 'til '78 - The Wasps
18. Ambition - Subway Sect
19. I'm Stranded - The Saints
20. Orgasm Addict - The Buzzcocks

Disc 2:

1. In The City - The Jam
2. Your Generation - Generation X
3. First Time - The Boys
4. Get A Grip (On Yourself) - The Stranglers
5. Don't Dictate - Penetration
6. In A Rut - The Ruts
7. Big Time - Rudi
8. Don't Ring Me Up - Protex
9. Justa Nother Teenage Rebel - The Outcasts
10. Solitary Confinement - The Members
11. Emergency - 999
12. 19 And Mad - Leyton Buzzards
13. I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher - Not Sensibles
14. Romford Girls - Riff Raff
15. Sick Of You - The Users
16. Gabrielle - The Nips
17. Where Were You - The Mekons
18. Murder Of Liddle Towers - Angelic Upstarts
19. Oh Bondage Up Yours - X-Ray Spex
20. Sweet Suburbia - Skids
21. Television Screen - The Radiators
22. Alternative Ulster - Stiff Little Fingers
23. Teenage Kicks - The Undertones

Disc 3:

1. Teenage Depression - Eddie & The Hot Rods
2. Rich Kids - Rich Kids
3. Baby Baby (I Know You're A Lady) - The Vibrators
4. Suffice To Say - Yachts
5. Roadrunner - Richman, Jonathan & The Modern Lovers
6. Don't Care - Klark Kent
7. Nervous Wreck - Radio Stars
8. Up Against The Wall - Robinson, Tom Band
9. So It Goes - Lowe, Nick
10. Police Car - Wallis, Larry
11. Hard Loving Man - Moped, Johnny
12. Love And A Molotov Cocktail - The Flys
13. Where's Captain Kirk - Spizzenergi
14. Sonic Reducer - Dead Boys
15. Search And Destroy - The Dictators
16. Born To Lose - The Heartbreakers
17. Modern Dance - Pere Ubu
18. Fuck Off - The Electric Chairs
19. California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys

Disc 4:

1. I Belong To The Blank Generation - Hell, Richard & The Voidoids
2. 10.15 Saturday Night - TheCure
3. Rip Her To Shreds - Blondie
4. I Can't Stand My Baby - The Rezillos
5. All I Want - Snatch
6. Looking After No 1 - The Boomtown Rats
7. Take Me I'm Yours - Squeeze
8. Sex And Drugs And Rock 'n' Roll - Dury, Ian & The Blockheads
9. Spanish Stroll - Mink DeVille
10. Is She Really Going Out With Him - Jackson, Joe
11. Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric
12. Part Time Punks - Television Personalities
13. Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart - Fitzgerald, Patrick
14. You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory - Thunders, Johnny
15. Psycle Sluts - Clarke, John Cooper
16. Jilted John - Jilted John
17. Kill - Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias
18. Paranoid - The Dickies

Disc 5:

1. Public Image - Public Image Ltd.
2. Warsaw - Joy Division
3. Staircase Mystery - Siouxsie & The Banshees
4. Damaged Goods - Gang Of Four
5. You - Au Pairs
6. How Much Longer - Au Pairs
7. Read About Seymour - Swell Maps
8. Young Parisians - Adam & The Ants
9. Monochrome Set - The Monochrome Set
10. We Are All Prostitutes - The Pop Group
11. Typical Girls - The Slits
12. Mannequin - Wire
13. Shot By Both Sides - Magazine
14. Science Fiction - XTC
15. Do The Standing Still - The Table
16. Another Girl Another Planet - The Only Ones
17. Young Savage - Ultravox
18. Puppet Life - Punishment Of Luxury
19. Jocko Homo - Devo
20. Marquee Moon - Television

As I alluded to earlier, the purpose of box sets such as this one is to provide the listener with an overview of a particular era or type of music. I know full well that it's damn near impossible to include everything - that would defeat the purpose of having such a set. Instead of providing the whole kit and kaboodle, a compilation like this one should effectively answer two questions:

a) "Does this set provide the listener with a insightful look into the genre?" and
b) "Upon completion, has the listener learned something useful about the genre?" 

In the case of 1-2-3-4: Punk & New Wave 1976-1979, the answer to both questions, in my opinion, is YES.

It's been almost fifteen years after the release of possibly the most definitive punk compilation of all time, and you NEVER hear anything about this set. In fact, 1-2-3-4 is currently out of print, which I regard as just another example of the recording industry's insanity and ass-forward thinking. This comp should never be allowed to lapse.

Therefore, it lives on here. For your listening pleasure, I present to you the superb 1-2-3-4: Punk & New Wave 1976-1979, released on April 19th, 1999 by Universal Music (UK) Ltd. Enjoy these one hundred prime cuts of '70s musical goodness . . . and as always, let me know what you think.

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

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