If there’s one thing you can depend on with a Barenaked Ladies
\nCD, it’s that you get two CDs for the price of one. Even on this,
\ntheir latest CD, a collection of holiday songs, there’s two
\nseparate undercurrents going on. On the one hand, you have the
\nquirky humorous side of the Canadians, and on the other side the
\nsudden moments of sober, serious thought-provocation. The question
\nis usually whether they can pull off both in the context of the CD;
\non
\nBarenaked For The Holidays<\/i>, they manage quite nicely.<\/p>\n
You won’t confuse this CD with any other, certainly. From the
\nopening “Jingle Bells”, which starts out as a minor-key
\nBen-Folds-like version and without warning mutates into a manic
\npolka, to the cheesy Casio keyboard takes on “O Holy Night” and
\n“Wonderful Christmastime”, Barenaked For The Holidays keeps you
\nguessing. The tongue-in-cheek labor rabblerousing tone of “Elf’s
\nLament” and the truly incomprehensible “Deck The Stills” keep the
\nfun coming. (The less said about “Deck The Stills”, the better. It
\nis, quite possibly, the most bizarre thing BNL has ever
\nrecorded.)<\/p>\n
Of course, scattered through these Yuletide land mines of
\nsilliness are some really beautiful, serious holiday songs. There
\nare some breathtaking originals like the wistful “Snowman” and the
\nholiday love story “Footprints”, as well as a great selection of
\nHanukkah songs – including the truly incredible “Hanukkah
\nBlessings”. (Now, asks the Pagan, where’s the Solstice songs? Huh?)
\nBNL even whips out their own take on the Mannheim Steamroller vibe
\nwith an instrumental “Carol Of The Bells”. Add to that unique takes
\non “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, “I Saw Three Ships” (with
\nmandolin, yet), and “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, and you have a
\nfunfilled holiday smorgasbord of tones and tunes. The elegance of
\nthe closing “Auld Lang Syne” caps the CD off perfectly.<\/p>\n
As far as I’m concerned, everyone should get
\nBarenaked For The Holidays<\/i>. (Except your Uncle Joe. That
\nwould just be disgusting.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5986],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38186","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-barenaked-ladies","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38186"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}