Random Thoughts* on John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"

I listen to this song once a year - only once - on Christmas Day just as I'm waking up. Clichéd? Perhaps, but so's what the song's become. And it's a great song, one I put on par with "Imagine": a song so simple, so beautiful, so overplayed (not to mention overcovered (Celine Dion?)) that it's easy to forget how radical, how hopeful, how wonderful a song it is.

This song, like many of Lennon's best, shifts from the personal ("Merry Christmas John/ Merry Christmas Yoko") to the political ("and what have you done?") marvelously and effortlessly. There's John, soaked in reverb, there's Yoko, perfectly screechy, there's the children's choir, which in this song is somehow made unhackneyed.

I love this song, even if I can only listen to it this rarely without it growing stale. Happy Christmas, internet. Happy Christmas, friends. War is over! (If you want it.)
















*First in a pulse-pounding, page-turning series!

--dB1--

I'm missing someone. But I'm totally happy because I have someone so awesome to miss.

It's like all over the internet already, but it's making me reconsider my "No SNL" policy, and that's important.
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=zLElfJ9YCh0

--A Few Albums I Forgot to Mention--

Because I'm bored, here are some excellent albums that came out this past year that I forgot when I was doing my top ten/honorable mentions. Either they were released early in the year and I overplayed them then and so wasn't listening to them much by the year's end, or they just fell through the many holes in my memory. Um. That's all the explanation that could possibly be necessary.
Bear with me...


The Decemberists - Picaresque: Finally, the band makes an album worth actually purchasing. Surprisingly consistent and catchy, with Colin Meloy's best lyrics to date. Sixteen Military Wives also manages to be the rarest of things: a non-annoying political/protest song.

Iron & Wine - Woman King EP: Like the Decemberists, Iron & Wine had promise that was never quite realized. But with this EP, the sameness/occasional boringness of past releases is banished; in its place is a fully realized and unquestionably awesome artistic statement.

Devin Davis - Lonely People of the World, Unite!: This may have come out in 2004, because I think that's when I first heard the track "Iron Woman," but both AMG and Pitchfork say 2005 and I'm believing them. Because this is an awesome album, incredibly poppy with beautifully surreal lyrics, and I want to mention it just for those reasons. If I hadn't been under the impression that it was a 2004 release, it unquestionably would have been in my top 10. Anyone who likes power pop needs to hear this. I'll YSI it especially for you, promise.

* * * * *

And now, I notice, it's time for websites I read to do their top album lists. Which means that probably once again I will get to watch the albums I care about the most be passed over. ;(

Life is hard.
-Random guy walking past my apartment at 4:30 in the morning about a month ago.