Content tagged ''
Everyday is Christmas (Deluxe Edition) (Album of the Day)
While the wish that EVERYDAY IS CHRISTMAS might seem unattainable outside the North Pole, Sia's 2017 album offers reason to listen to holiday songs throughout the year. The Australian singer-songwriter has made a career out of defying expectations, and the Atlantic collection, produced by longtime collaborator Greg Kurstin, is no exception – all the material here is original. Songs like “Santa's Coming for Us,” “Snowman” and “Underneath the Mistletoe” have the feel of familiar favorites even as they broaden the Christmas canon, capturing the season's moods with a variety of approaches from bouncy indie sounds to heartfelt balladry. As the cover photo suggests, you'll have plenty of fun with this set - EVERYDAY IS CHRISTMAS is a perfect pop stocking stuffer.
Christmas With Yolanda Adams (Album of the Day)
Texas-born singer Yolanda Adams has been called the First Lady of Modern Gospel, and the performances on CHRISTMAS WITH YOLANDA ADAMS make it clear she deserves that title. The follow-up to her Grammy-winning breakthrough MOUNTAIN HIGH … VALLEY LOW, the 2000 Elektra collection features a couple of secular chestnuts (including “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”), but most of the ten selections are carols and traditional songs such as “The First Noel” and “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.” Superb accompanying musicians add R&B and jazz-tinged settings to Adams' rich and passionate vocals on this Billboard Gospel Album chart-topper, and CHRISTMAS WITH YOLANDA ADAMS will make your spirit soar.
Kylie Christmas (Album of the Day)
Australia's reigning pop princess, Kylie Minogue has sold more than 80 million records worldwide, and though it took her a while to get to a holiday album – KYLIE CHRISTMAS is her 13th studio set – the results were worth the wait. Co-produced by her longtime musical director Steve Anderson, the 2015 collection offers a little something for everyone, from time-honored classics (“It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” bookend the album) to more recent yuletide songs by The Waitresses, Pretenders and Coldplay to such originals as “Christmas Isn't Christmas 'Til You Get Here.” The arrangements are varied as well, and duet partners include Iggy Pop, James Corden and Frank Sinatra (via a vintage recording of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”). Have a Merry KYLIE CHRISTMAS this year!
Christmas Secrets (Album of the Day)
Since emerging from her family's Celtic folk group, Clannad, in the mid-1980s, Enya has become the most successful Irish solo artist of all time. The singer-songwriter's ethereal music captures yuletide wonder perfectly, and she's made three holiday albums - the best of which can be heard on CHRISTMAS SECRETS. The compilation features 12 tracks taken from the Special Christmas Edition of AMARANTINE, AND WINTER CAME… and SOUNDS OF THE SEASON and includes both classics (“We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”) and original compositions (“Journey of the Angels,” “Amid the Falling Snow”). To wish you a happy holiday, we'll share Enya's CHRISTMAS SECRETS with you!
Ooh La La (Album of the Day)
When Faces officially called it quits on this day in 1975, the band left behind four studio albums, each a rough-hewn gem. By the 1973 release of the last of these, OOH LA LA, frontman Rod Stewart was more focused on his solo career and co-founder Ronnie Lane picked up the slack in spectacular fashion – the title track may be the best thing he ever wrote, and “Glad and Sorry” isn't far behind. Stewart makes his raspy presence felt on such tracks as “Cindy Incidentally” and with producer Glyn Johns rallying the troops, the rest of the boys play superbly. A chart-topper in the group's native U.K., OOH LA LA is a rousing finale to the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers' career.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (Album of the Day)
In a career filled with peaks, THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS is likely David Bowie's Mt. Everest. The performer's fifth studio album featured irresistible glam rock anthems in a conceptual framework combining sexual ambiguity, science fiction and rock star autobiography. As a songwriter, Bowie was firing on all cylinders here – “Starman,” “Hang On to Yourself,” “Suffragette City” and the title track were instant classics – and Mick Ronson's punchy riffs made it clear he was a guitar hero to be reckoned with. The 1972 collection hit the U.K. Top 10 and THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS has been a staple of critics' “greatest albums of all-time” lists ever since.
Zuma (Album of the Day)
Neil Young's batting average in the 1970s was extraordinarily high, and ZUMA is another home run. Named after the California beach where Neil resided, the 1975 Reprise collection largely ditches the despair running through his preceding “ditch trilogy,” and the 9 originals include such tender songs as “Lookin' for a Love” and even a CSNY recording, “Through My Sails.” Cut with a reconfigured Crazy Horse, the album has plenty of raw energy and some of Young's best-ever guitar solos, most notably on “Danger Bird” and historical epic “Cortez the Killer.” The gold-certified ZUMA is an ideal showcase of the intensity, versatility and heart that put Neil Young in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Anthem of the Sun (Album of the Day)
The Grateful Dead's second studio collection, 1968's ANTHEM OF THE SUN, was an unprecedented hybrid of studio and live recordings. It also marked a departure for the band, as they began to channel their creativity into longer jams on songs like “Alligator” and “Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)” – two concert staples of the Dead’s early days. As band archivist David Lemieux notes, “This is one of the most thrilling albums the Grateful Dead ever produced, mixing portions of live recordings from the first six months of Mickey's tenure with the band, along with studio experimentations that would hint at where the Dead would go when they started recording to 16-track tape the following year.” ANTHEM OF THE SUN captures the legendary group at the summit of psychedelic music.
Music from the Motion Picture SPARKLE (Album of the Day)
Starring Irene Cara in the title role, SPARKLE told the story of the rise and fall of a Harlem girl group at the end of the 1950s. Though it was remade decades later with Whitney Houston in the lead, the film's greatest claim to fame is likely its wonderful soundtrack, a meeting of two R&B giants: Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield. With Mayfield producing and writing all the material, the 1976 collection shows the Queen of Soul in all her majesty on eight songs including “Hooked on Your Love” and Top 40 hit “Something He Can Feel” (both of which would later be covered by En Vogue).Aretha Franklin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on this day in 1987, and the gold-certified MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE SPARKLE was one of her biggest successes of the late 1970s.
More of the Monkees (Album of the Day)
When it was clear that Monkees records were taking off, producer Don Kirschener, songwriters Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart and Micky, Davy, Mike and Peter themselves all had their own ideas of what they should sound like. On the group's second album, MORE OF THE MONKEES, that meant a dozen fine songs, including Boyce & Hart's “I'm Not Your Stepping Stone,” a brace of Brill Building tunes (Gerry Goffin & Carole King's “Sometime In The Morning,” Neil Diamond's “I'm A Believer,” which started a 7-week run at No.1 on the Singles chart on this day in 1966) and a pair of Nesmith numbers: “Mary Mary” and “The Kind Of Girl I Could Love.” MORE OF THE MONKEES became the group’s most successful album, racking up a staggering 70 weeks on the Billboard chart – 18 of them at #1.