Relient K "Let It Snow Baby ... Let It Reindeer" (Capitol Records) Grade: B Sounds Like: Another pop Christmas album
Relient K's "Let It Snow Baby ... Let It Reindeer" consists mostly of tracks from their 2003 Christmas album, "Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand," with the addition of seven new tracks to make the CD a whopping 20 tracks long.
Though it's difficult to redo the Christmas songs that have been around for decades, Relient K takes a mostly successful stab using their tight harmonies and pop-punk sound with a dose of irreverence to make this CD worth buying. Most of the band's renditions of traditional carols like "Sleigh Bells" and "O Holy Night" fail to bring anything new to the table other than an electric guitar and singer Matt Thiessen's earnest vocals. One carol that does receive a fresh breath of Christmas air is "12 Days of Christmas," which the band mutilates true to Relient K's unorthodox way and includes the additional lyrics, "What's a partridge, and what's a pear tree? I don't know, so please don't ask me, but I can bet those are terrible gifts to get."
The album finds more success with their self-penned Christmas odes, if not for their songwriting, for the break in hearing carol after predictable carol. Sincere wishes of good cheer teamed with more thoughtful and complex songwriting shows the diversity of the band and how they've grown since they signed with Capitol records. For an amusing and comfortable mix of new and old Christmas tunes, "Let It Snow Baby ... Let It Reindeer" won't disappoint.
-TRACI J. BROOKS
Erran Baron Cohen "Songs In the Key of Hanukkah" (New Line Records) Grade: B Sounds Like: Hanukkah for the 21st century
What at first appears to be an album more appropriate for the parents of AU students than the students themselves turns into a CD ridiculous enough for the younger generation. Even those who don't celebrate the Festival of Lights will be enlightened by the musical traditions Erran Baron Cohen (Sacha's brother) preserves and revel in the Yiddish rapping of Y-Love, just one of many musicians the vast majority of America's never heard of that Cohen highlights on this CD. Cohen also highlights Jules Brookes' vocals, world-music singer Yasmin Levy and Israeli superstar Iadn Raichel.
Cohen takes classic Hanukkah songs and plays around with their structure and instrumentation while maintaining the melodies that make them recognizable. Cohen fuses hip-hop, reggae, rock and klezmer music in this endeavor. Notable tracks include "Rock of Ages" which features a feel-good chorus with call and response vocals. "Relics of Love and Light" opens with a simple and beautiful piano riff that is soon matched with light percussion and Raichel's warm vocals. The classic "Dreidel" song gets a drastic update, appearing on the CD in a minor key with a gypsy-like drum beat.
The slower, more thoughtful tracks give the listener the opportunity to think through Cohen's musical choices while the upbeat songs are a cacophony that can lose the listener if he or she is not familiar with the song. Knowing Hebrew and Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish) might help, but even when sung in another language, "Songs in the Key of Hanukkah" translates.
- T.J.B.
