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Music

With "Santa Baby", Emergency Tiara Updates a Classic Just in Time for the Holidays (premiere)

J-pop meets vintage girl group in Emergency Tiara's smart, sassy cover of the Eartha Kitt Christmas standard, "Santa Baby".

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Music

Kelly Clarkson: Wrapped in Red

Kelly Clarkson plays it safe, and spends too much time showing off her upper register, but Wrapped in Red is a warm and romantic addition to the Christmas pop zeitgeist.

Reviews

Christmas Is When People Go Nuts: 'Silent Night Deadly Night / Silent Night Deadly Night: Part 2'

Santa Claus slices, stabs, and slays in one of the most controversial films of the '80s, which finally gets a long-overdue deluxe re-release just in time for the holidays.

Reviews

ISO Yuletide Celebration: 15 December 2012 - Indianapolis, IN

When it comes to our intake of Christmas media, we seem to put aside our normal artistic filters, both in terms of content and in terms of presentation, and simply partake in enjoyment. And that’s absolutely okay.

Music

Willie Nelson: The Classic Christmas Album

A new collection of Willie Nelson Christmas songs provides a warm, rustic accompaniment to your holiday activities.

Matt Arado
Music

Ten Great Musical Gifts for the Holidays

This year saw the release of many truly stellar box sets and re-issues from the Holy Grail of Western pop music (the earliest Louis Armstrong recordings and the Beatles remasters on vinyl) to indie heroes like Sugar and folk pioneer Woody Guthrie. Here's ten of our faves.

Music

Geri Allen: A Child Is Born

Christmas jazz album showcases much facility, some invention, a couple surprises.

Josh Langhoff
Music

Frank Sinatra: A Jolly Christmas

Frank Sinatra's first full-length Christmas album remains his best.

Philip Majorins
Games

A Holiday Season Awash in Competence

What this holiday season in gaming seems to lack is not polish -- in fact, some of these titles might be too polished.

Music

On Making that Holiday Music List and Checking It Twice

It's that time of the year, again. Music fans are making their lists of what they hope to find wrapped in pretty paper at Christmas, and music publications are making their lists of what should be on those lists. Now, I have something to say about lists.

Music

Sonos: December Songs

How many versions of "O Holy Night" do YOU own?

Josh Langhoff
Music

The Superions: Destination... Christmas!

My reluctance to enjoy this album may prove that I lack a sense of humor. If that's true, Fred Schneider’s Christmas music killed it.

Josh Langhoff
Music

Indigo Girls: Holly Happy Days

Fear not, skeptics of holiday music: it gets better!

Josh Langhoff
Television

The Ten Best Holiday Episodes

A countdown of the 10 best holiday themed TV episodes

Culture

Santa Claus: Super Hero Icon and Religious Figure

Kris Kringle has flesh-and-blood status and is a religious secular figure. He is Superman, Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, Gandalf the White, James Bond, Dr. Who and James T. Kirk all rolled into one.

Music

Carla Bley: Carla's Christmas Carols

These beautifully arranged pieces place this among the really enjoyable and surprising Christmas albums.

Reviews

Merry Sitcom: Christmas Classics From TV's Golden Age

The overarching theme among these stories is an often unacknowledged tension between affluent postwar consumer culture and a more austere mode of living.

Music

Loreena McKennitt: A Midwinter Night's Dream

On this Christmas album, the courtliness seems unnecessarily flowery.

Film

The Cold Season

Just when you start worrying about the state of American movies, and wondering whether the business is going to swandive into irrelevance, along comes something as vital and jolting as Frozen River.

Music

Various: Think Global: World Christmas

More like an adventurous sampler of interesting, sometimes surprising, songs rather than just a Christmas album.

Music

Jars of Clay: Christmas Songs

Christmas Songs is refuge from the bombast of the season, a perfectly subtle slice of Heaven.

Music

Various Artists: Slow Jams for Christmas

Recipe for a romantic Christmas -- light the candles, pop the bubbly, hang the mistletoe, and play this CD.


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