AddendumAs of a few minutes ago, the album was No. 3 on iTunes' charts, one notch above Kanye West's album. - 9:30 p.m. CST 12/3
Stephen Colbert is calling on everyone to help drive his Christmas album to the top of the iTunes charts today at 5 p.m. Eastern in "Operation Humble Kanye."
I'd play along, but I already bought it.
It's not for all tastes of course, but it is a bit of a holiday blast. The culminating performance of "Peace, Love and Understanding" works well, Feist's voice is lovely and Jon Stewart's ode to Hanukkah backed up by brush stick drumming is, well, maybe not pitch-perfect but perfect nonethless. When Colbert decides to stick to his Catholic roots rather than convert, Stewart urges him to wish "the pontiff a Gut Yontif."
I'd planned to simply watch the special, but I found myself wanting to hum along and put the Colbertnation.com Fahrenheit 451-burning Yule log on my desktop to make things feel cozy.
The collection features some authentic tunes such as Toby Keith's right-leaning- but- easy-to-hum-to "Have I Got A Present for You" and Elvis Costello's "What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding?" but much of it's composed of surprisingly good song parodies.
They sound so authentic and familiar they could almost be modern standards or at least secondary tracks on any of a host of celebrity seasonal albums, if they, you know, weren't mildly blasphemous or seemingly suggestive as in John Legend's ode to "Nutmeg."
It's not for all tastes of course, but it is a bit of a holiday blast. The culminating performance of "Peace, Love and Understanding" works well, Feist's voice is lovely and Jon Stewart's ode to Hanukkah backed up by brush stick drumming is, well, maybe not pitch-perfect but perfect nonethless. When Colbert decides to stick to his Catholic roots rather than convert, Stewart urges him to wish "the pontiff a Gut Yontif."
The only more ingenious lyric is Willie Nelson's Drummer Boy-esque ode to ganja that admonishes "let mankind not Bogart love."
Like I said, not for all tastes, but if you can take holiday flavor with a little tongue in cheek, it's parody as inspired as Colbert's take on pompous pundits.
As Willie's extra Wise Man might put it: "Yah, the bud was kind."
3 comments:
I watched the show with Lana and got some laughs from the music. Not so much I'd pay for it, mind you, but there was some humorous stuff. We laughed hardest at "bogart love."
There are actually some cool touches with repeated listening. In Feist's number, there's a "hold music" riff that kicks in and fits perfectly with the lyrics.
I saw part of the show and laughed a lot. I usually don't care for Christmas specials, although perhaps that's why I liked this one. I hope it's on again so I can see the parts I missed.
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