Taste of Christmas
Taste of Christmas
Warcon Enterprises
Christmas music is such a morass. Seasonal CDs sell, but it’s not an area that gives an artist much maneuvering room. One can cover the old standards, aiming for a new or interesting stylistic twist like the punk version of “We Three Kings” performed by Amped on this disc. Another option is to write something completely new and aim low, like “Christmassacre” written by From First to Last, but I doubt this scream-metal tune will displace “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” or “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” anytime soon. The only remaining option is to just toss together all the stock holiday symbols and cover them with an innocuous arrangement that sounds a bit seasonal. That’s the option Skindred takes with “Jungle Bells,” a hip-hop/ska hybrid of every cliché one can imagine, including the horrid line “Get in the mood, drink up your drink and eat the food.” For some reason, this just doesn’t make me feel jolly.
Taste of Christmas has little going for it, even if you admire the collection of post-post-punk bands that contributed to the project. The opening is promising, with an acceptable cover of John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” by Bert McCracken’s Street Drum Corp (formerly of The Used). But after that, the quality drops quickly with only “Coventry Carol” by The Smash Up and the aforementioned “We Three Kings” worth a second listen. It’s a socks and underwear holiday with this disc – the punk is repetitive, and the holiday connection ranges from forced to absent. I wouldn’t even use it for the mandatory “$5 either gender” office party gift.
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