Get ready for a slice of early '90s Holiday nostalgia, music lovers. . .
Album Title: Home Alone Christmas
Album Artist: Various Artists
I was able to snag this for a meager $15 during one of Walmart's flash vinyl sales around Black Friday. I've had my eye on this Holiday release since it first came out last year, even when it was $25 - it's a compilation of some of the more recognizable songs used in the first two Home Alone movies, and it's even on red, translucent vinyl (which, you know, makes it sound better.)
Several of the songs used in this compilation are only famous due to the success of the movies, so their familiarity during the Holidays is based solely on their association with the movies and not with, say, the radio or your preferred streaming platform. 'Christmas Vacation' from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and any of Vince Giuraldi Trio's numbers from A Charlie Brown Christmas fall into this category, for sure. In this case, selections like The Fox Albert Choir's 'My Christmas Tree,' used during the Christmas pageant scene towards the beginning of the second movie, would be a perfect example. While not an awesome song, per se, it reminds you of that particular scene in the movie, and these movies are both Christmas staples. John Williams, hands-down the greatest film composer of all time, offers three of his more recognizable pieces from the movies for this compilation, each of which have now become Holiday classics that one can hear in stores or one instrumental, Christmas playlists. There's not a hell of a lot I can really say about someone as prolific as John Motherf***ing Williams - we all know he's the best at what he does, and, as usual, he delivers on this one once again. I'm pretty sure if he delivered anything that wasn't prolific and instantaneously a classic our entire society would collapse.
Alan Jackson's 'A Holly Jolly Christmas' to the LP is one of the weaker songs on this release - it's just 'okay,' and I can't place its use in either of the two movies. Even worse than this one, and easily the worst songs on the entire release, are Atlantic Starr's 'Silver Bells' and TLC's 'Sleigh Bells.' Like Jackson's contribution, I don't remember these songs being in either of the two Home Alone movies, though I'm sure they played during the credits or something at some point, and their inclusion in the films (as well as on this compilation) was for producers to flex the movies' early '90s 'coolness' factor. Both tracks are terrible, though - like, scratch the track with a nail so it can't be played again terrible.All in all, this is mostly a solid Holiday soundtrack, but far from perfect. There's a lot of good and a lot of bad on this LP, meaning you should probably put this one on in the background while you're doing other things during the Holidays (that way you can tune in during the good songs and run out of the room during the bad ones.) By far, the biggest letdown on this album is the absence of The Drifter's 'White Christmas' - aside from Williams' score, the most definitive use of music in the entire films. It's nowhere to be found. That song is a genuine classic, and transcends the popularity of the movies by being a radio favorite before the films came out - God knows it appears on a few of my Amazon playlists.
VERDICT: 7/10 - Pretty Rad (A good album, but not great. . . thanks in part to a few terrible song inclusions and exclusions. Maybe they'll come out with a deluxe edition of this soundtrack in the future featuring all the great Christmas music that was omitted from this particular release. In the meantime, however, there's juuuuust enough good stuff here to keep it playing throughout the Holiday Season.)
- REMAINS IN ROTATION-
- Brian
