A Christmas Gift for You, Indeed

A Christmas Gift for You, Indeed

I can’t say I don’t like Christmas music. I only like a very select group of Christmas music, consisting of Bruce Springsteen’s version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” for obvious reasons, and Phil Spector’s famous Christmas album, A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector. And that’s it. End of list. No Chipmunk song, and I better not hear that weird Dominic the Donkey song, either.

REVIEW: Cam - Untamed

REVIEW: Cam - <i>Untamed</i>

It’s refreshing when an artist lives up to the hype. I always feel relieved for the artist, and selfishly, relieved as a listener that a great single hadn’t gotten my hopes up. Breakout artist Cam released Untamed, her first full length album, this week to much anticipation. And by much anticipation, I mean you couldn’t listen to country radio in Nashville for the past two months for thirty minutes without hearing “Burning House,” her breakout single, at least once.

REVIEW: Chris Smallwood - "Out in the Open"

REVIEW: Chris Smallwood - "Out in the Open"

Smallwood’s first album is a fantastic blend of East and West coast singer-songwriter sensibilities. There’s a lot of Jackson Browne here. There’s even more Billy Joel and Carole King. Even more, there’s a reverence for honest, straightforward music-- especially the best stuff from the 1970s.

The Filthy Fifteen: Part 2

The Filthy Fifteen: Part 2

This week, we’ll be covering the Parents Music Resource Center’s Filthy Fifteen: a list of songs from 1985 that, according to the group, embody the music industry’s flagrant promotion of sex, violence, drugs, and the occult. This is the third installment of a four-part series. For more background, check out our introductory article and the first part of our countdown.