'New Christmas CD's'

I LOVE Christmas shopping! Even though it often 'does your head in' trying to work out what to buy people I love the 'thrill of the chase' and often end up buying stuff for myself that I 'discovered' that I didn't intend to!

The snag is, of course, that while we all know instantly what WE would like for Christmas (cue an evening of chat about music, life and Christmas with, Kim Wilde and a romantic dinner with Claudia Winkleman!) we only really find out how LITTLE we know about our friends when its time to buy them something! (lol)

I always take a good 'scroll' down the list of new Christmas albums on Amazon.com at this time of year as well to see which artist has 'done a Mariah' this year! One thing that often irks me though is that prior to an albums release date you cannot even have a listen to 'previews' of the songs via their Mp3 choice. How silly is that! I mean, if people can get a 'sneak preview' of 30 seconds of each song or even a few songs on the album they will be MORE likely to pre-order it or buy it as soon as it comes out. Denying people the chance to hear a single bar beforehand is thus surely BAD for sales and only likely to COST artists as it is easy to forget all about something at this time of year and as Christmas albums are seasonal you are hardly likely to order it when you remember in January!

One of the CD's it would have been good to have a listen to is the new 'Fizz' (Bucks Fizz) Christmas record, 'Christmas With The Fizz'. It's due for release tomorrow and includes some 'festive favourites' like, 'Winter Wonderland', 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' and 'White Christmas' along with a couple of band written songs and rare covers of, 'I Believe In Father Christmas' by Greg Lake and even more oddly, 'Mull Of Kintyre' by Wings.

There is also a 'Christmas version' of the Bucks Fizz hit, 'Land Of Make Believe' as well. All in all, it sounds like a very curious mix and quite a 'brave' selection in many ways because both the Greg Lake and Wings songs sound VERY easy to 'butcher' to me if the wrong approach is taken. To add even more interest the album is produced by, Mike Stock of Stock, Aitken And Waterman fame. Retro is really the 'in thing' these days and so I hope the album turns out to be a triumph and not a disaster! (lol)

Another intriguing item is the 'A Very Monotreme Christmas' Various Artists CD.

Limited to just 200 copies it is going to end up a 'Christmas music collectors ( if there is such a thing?) holy grail' in a few years time. The cover doesn't look all that 'Christmassy' to me and I have no idea what Monotreme means nor have I heard of any of the artists?Being a HUGE MUD fan I have to admit that I'm intrigued to hear the 'soulful' version of their, 'Lonely This Christmas' hit on the album but with only 8 tracks and covers of 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' (Jack Watts) and 'Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy' (The Favourite Bench) neither of which are my favourite Crimbo songs its a bit skinny value for me. I would like to know what the cover of , Etta James, 'At Last' sounds like though being a, Harvey Summers fan...

Talking of, Kim Wilde (I had a HUGE crush on her at school!) her Christmas album from a few years back is pretty good. I will be playing a track from it on Christmas Eve on the Jeff Belton show on CHR (Conquest Hospital Radio). In line with Christmas, Kim is releasing a DELUXE edition of her, 'Here Come The Aliens' album with a second disc of remixes, live tracks and two brand new tracks. While I have not heard the, 'Here come The Aliens' album in full from what I have heard it is a pretty 'samey' sounding set and so I won't be rushing to buy the deluxe version but if you saw, Kim live at the White Rock theatre in Hastings earlier this year you might like it as a souvenir of the tour as the three live tracks were all recorded on the tour...

Finally, HORRIFICALLY there is also a new, William Shatner Christmas CD on the way this year! Oh my GOODNESS I can only imagine how terrible that is going to sound.

The album is AWASH with 'guests' though as you may well imagine (seeing as Shatner is an AWFUL vocalist!) and AMAZINGLY quite a few of them are famous people! One of those being, Elliot Easton (The Cars) who contributes to the, aptly named no doubt, 'Run Rudolph Run'. Also on the album are, Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Henry Rollins and Rick Wakeman. Well, its amazing who you can get to appear on your records when you can 'boldly go where no man has been before' is all I can say! (lol)

Oh, and poor old Captain Sensible will be 'turning in his shoes' after one look at the cover because it features a CRINGE WORTHY pic of Shatner in a Santa hat. Sadly, for the good Captain at a quick glance it looks a bit like him! (LOL)