Two surprisingly good Christmas tunes
David Gertler | Delaware, USA | 12/19/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I got the CD of _Christmas Cracker_ at a Graham Parker concert, as a premium for buying one of his other CDs. Since it was free, I viewed it as a throwaway effort ... but I was pleasantly surprised when I actually played the thing.
"Christmas is for Mugs" is classic Graham - his lyrically cynical self, offering a hilariously dark view of this holiday. You may find yourself singing the snide chorus at unexpected moments each December.
"Soul Christmas" name-checks many of the great soul musicians, over a tasty, horn-heavy soul track. Nona Hendryx's down-home melodizing deftly offsets the quasi-soul stylings of this odd Anglo bloke.
I found "New Year's Revolution" uninspiring, so I tend to skip right past it. Worth a listen or two, though. And the demo versions of the three songs, while naturally less polished, offer an interesting view of how songs evolve through the process of recording and production.
Overall, it's not my favorite Parker, but it offers a couple of clever additions to the Christmas-song canon."