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Album Details

• Artist: Various Artists
• Album: Maybe This Christmas Tree
• Label: Nettwerk
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-12-09

It took me a second but then I caught the "Tree" in this Christmas compilation title. This is the third volume (Three - Tree?) in the Nettwerk Christmas series with some of today's hottest indie artists. This time around we get treated to a number of the year's coolest artists, and some of yesterdays too (Lisa Loeb doing "Jingle Bells"). The album starts out with Polyphonic Spree doing the very predictable "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and have a tough time making it sound much different than the original. The Raveonettes bring the calibre up a notch with "The Christmas Song" done like only the Raveonettes could do. Then Death Cab For Cutie do a bang up job on "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" really taking it to a new level. Pedro The Lion reworks "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" into something unrecognizable. It's good. There was one band that I couldn't find information on, Belasana. They reminded me of Fountains of Wayne. Speaking of FOW, next up was an amazing reworking of Vince Guaraldi/Peanuts classic "Christmas Time Is Here" by Ivy. It's the sexiest thing I've heard for ages. Royal Crown Revue take on "Baby It's Cold Outside" with the help of Vicky Tafoya sounding as classic as Ella. Tom McRae takes on McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" and understates it and makes it into a very beautiful song. And what would be a Christmas album without "Fairytale of New York"? This is provided courtesy of Pilate and they do a fairly decent job. Jars of Clay do a song called "Christmas for Cowboys" and Copeland inject some emo sensitivity into "Do You Hear What I Hear?". All in all, this is one of the better contemporary Christmas albums I have heard in recent years. Make someone happy this year by putting Maybe This Christmas Tree under the Christmas tree.

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