Nettwerk America has released a Christmas Compilation this season entitled "Maybe This Christmas". The album consists of thirteen songs from a wide range of artists. If you're looking for the album in a store it should be fairly easy to pick it out of the crowd. Paul Frank was brought on to design the artwork for the album. A portion of the proceeds from the sales go to Toys for Tots, the charity run by the U.S. Marine Corps, which brings underprivileged children toys for the holidays.
I've always been a fan of Christmas songs. Especially when they are performed by some of my favorite artists. With "Maybe This Christmas" we have what may shape up to be my favorite Christmas album released this season. Actually I don't really know of any others that are coming out this season that interest me besides the Pedro the Lion 7", but that's only two songs. Denison Witmer (Burnt Toast Vinyl) was supposed to be recording a Christmas album with the Innocence Mission, but from what I understand that's currently been put on hold.
Probably the best way to cover this release will be for me to just go through track by track, list the artist, the song and a few comments. The album opens up with Phantom Planet doing "Winter Wonderland". I'm not too familiar with the band's material, but it's a nice sounding song with a bit of a twist to this old classic. The song was previously unavailable commercially, but was released in a limited edition to the band's fan club members. Ron Sexsmith is up next with "Maybe This Christmas" an original song Ron recorded exclusively for this release. Coldplay does a very nice cover of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" featuring just vocals and piano to give it a very "Christmas" feel. Pop star Vanessa Carlton covers the Christmas Classic "Greensleeves"...this gal has a great/unique voice and the song is arranged very nicely. She also recorded the song exclusively for this compilation.
Bright Eyes performs "Blue Christmas", which is a track that fits his "style" perfectly. The song sounds really good though and unlike some of Conor's material the recording quality is actually rather good and his vocals are not overly whiny. Which is exactly what he needed to do on this song. Basically vocals (female back-ups), drums, guitar, bass and piano. Really sounds nice and the song is exclusive to this compilation. Sensefield does a wonderful cover of "Happy Christmas (War is Over)", probably my favorite track on the album. Starts off with acoustic guitar and vocals, then at about 40 seconds into the song the drums and distorted guitars start up, but the pace doesn't really pick up too much so it still continues to have that "Christmas" feel without getting all punk rock on us. You just can't go too punk rock on a Christmas song, unless you're the Ramones and you're playing "Merry Christmas I Don't Want to Fight Tonight". "Happy Christmas" is also a track that was recorded exclusively for "Maybe This Christmas".
Probably the most disappointing track on the release is Jimmy Eat World's "12/23/95" a song that was already on their album "Clarity". Maybe it's just a way for the label that put out the release to cash in on the band's current mainstream popularity. Not only is the song already on one of the band's full length releases, but it's not even that Christmas based, in sound or lyrics. Sure at almost 3 minutes into the song he sings "Merry Christmas baby" over and over again for the last minute of the song...
Jack Johnson is up next with a rather Jack Johnson sounding "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". The Barenaked Ladies along with Sarah McLachlan cover "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" which already has appeared on a commercially available release. Ben Folds lends his original comic tune "Bizarre Christmas Incident", which presents an interesting story of Santa getting stuck in a chimney. Actually the remaining tracks are all original songs by the following artists. Dan Wilson "What A Year for A New Year", Neil Finn with "Sweet Secret Place" and Loreena McKennitt "Snow". All great holiday songs.
Overall this is a solid release if you're looking for some new Christmas songs for the season. With a majority of the songs either exclusive to this compilation or previously released on a limited pressing the compilation has enough material to appeal to a wide range of music lovers. If I were you I would get this album quick. The time for listening to Christmas songs is fast approaching and will be over before we know it.
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