Welcome back, folks. Today's installment should be pretty painless. . .
Album Title: A Sparkling Christmas
Album Artist: Various Artists
So this one right here I initially came across on
Amazon while browsing Holiday vinyl, but after adding it to one of my lists the price skyrocketed. I hopped onto
Discogs to see if the price was any better over there, and was fortunately able to pick up a '
champagne'-colored pressing for less than
$20.
Once again: as gimmicky as it is, colored vinyl is pretty damn cool.
So, the track listing on this album may be one of the
greatest I have
ever seen on a Holiday compilation. This is so jam-packed full of Christmas classics that you
could make the argument that if you were only able to spin
one album during the Holiday Season, it should be this one. This is a Who's Who of yuletide classics, without any of what I like to call 'new classics' which usually appear on compilations like this (pieces of audio garbage like Maria Carey's '
All I Want for Christmas is You,' holiday offerings from Michael Buble and Josh Groban, everything those assholes in
Pentatonix have ever recorded, etc. etc.)
I mean, just take a look at this f***ing track listing:
Yeah. Seriously.
So, I think that the weakest track on this entire release is Johnny Cash's take on 'The Little Drummer Boy.' As bad-ass as Johnny Cash is (he's easily in my Top Five all-time favorite artists), he sure did write some God-awful Christmas music. But honestly, if the weakest song on your album is written by Johnny frickin' Cash, you know you have yourself a Holiday winner.
VERDICT: 9/10 - Cowabunga! (A nearly perfect record, which loses a point from one or two less-than-stellar tracks that are still somewhat tolerable. If I could rate this a 9.5, I would.)
- REMAINS IN CIRCULATION -
- Brian
