song of the week

song of the week 40: frank sinatra - have yourself a merry little christmas

I've heard a few grim old versions of this song in the last week or so.

First up against the wall is My Morning Jacket whose half-soaked wheeze sounds like they didn't even get out of bed to record it. Chris Martin has learnt a couple of new jazzy chords which he can't really shoe-horn into the usual Coldplay oeuvre but which godammit he's going to bang out here even if they don't quite fit in. We wouldn't expect much of Kenny G but his version is perhaps not as bad as it might be. Michael Bublé over-eggs it a bit with those gushing strings but then we never did like him. And Lord save us from Christina Aguilera whose yelpy melismania is almost the polar opposite of the My Morning Jacket version but just as unlistenable.

Why not just content ourselves with this more thoughtful version from a bloke from New Jersey who could carry a tune or two and from a time (1957) when the song's overfamiliarity hadn't yet bred contempt:

Another year over and what have we done?

Well, we've listened to a lot of music. Time well spent? Think so...

Here's a playlist of some decent tracks which have seen the light of day in 2011, courtesy of our favourite music streaming service. It's in no way authoritative, being largely dependent on hastily scribbled post-it notes after 6Music--usually Gideon Coe--has make my ears prick up with something.

And these, in rough order, are my top 20 albums of the year, chosen with slightly more consideration:

1. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
2. High Llamas – Talahomi Way
3. Hong Kong in the 60s – My Fantoms
4. Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow
5. Cornershop – Cornershop and the Double “O” Groove
6. Leisure Society – Into The Murky Water
7. King Creosote and Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
8. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
9. Nick Lowe – The Old Magic
10. Hollie Cook – Hollie Cook
11. Low – C’Mon
12. SBTRKT – SBTRKT
13. Elbow – Build a Rocket Boys!
14. Silver Seas – Chateau Revenge
15. Modular - Sinfonias Para Terricolas
16. Cecil Sharp Project – Cecil Sharp Project
17. Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo
18. James Blake – James Blake
19. The Unthanks – Last
20. Jonny – Jonny

Make of that what you will but as always I'd be interested in any comments, politely-phrased alternative suggestions/unbridled outbursts of knuckle-clenched fury...