A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn’t So) by The Flaming Lips
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Been a bit remiss in getting my xmas mixtape up. Here’s a couple to get you through the grind of holiday mall music.

Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas by Eels : Download
Merry Xmas I Love You by Velocity Girl : Download

and not technically an Xmas song, but good for the season….
What A Wonderful World by John Legend : Download

Last Christmas by Pas/Cal

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Winter Wonderland by the Cocteau Twins

Download

All Around The World It’s Christmastime by The Alarm.

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Ever since Bowie’s Pin-Ups turned me on to early Pink Floyd, Small Faces and semi-obscure Who tracks, I’ve been a fan of the Covers Album.

Usually a throwaway album, some people have the ability to turn take a group of songs and make them their own.

I’ve separated the Covers Album from my top albums list this year, due to the large number released this year. Here’s the Top 10 in alphabetical order.

Allison Moorer – Mockingbird
Part 1 of Sister Act 2008, Allison does tribute to other female songwriters with this collection. While I found the production to be a bit soft, Allison has a voice like butter… and I’m a sucker for redheads with buttery voices.

Standout Tracks : Revelator (Gillian Welch), Orphan Train (Julie Miller)

Cat Power – Jukebox
Her second covers album got far fewer raves than her first, but I find this one to be better. Chan hit her stride with The Greatest in ‘07, and continues that theme with this collection. If you don’t have the second disc, it’s almost better than the first.

Standout Tracks : Aretha, Sing One For Me (George Jackson), Naked, If I Wanted To (Moby Grape)

French Kicks – Covers EP
A short EP of covers which barely made the list (brevity is not always appreciated) but get a boost from also releasing one of the better LPs this year.

Standout Track : Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (The Shirelles)

Glen Campbell – Meet Glen Campbell
This is an oddly engaging album, and while it’s fairly obvious that Glen didn’t pick these songs himself, he puts a huge amount of empathy and authenticity into each one. A music snob’s playlist of tunes from the Velvet Underground, Replacements, U2 and Jackson Browne gets the treatment (although his version of These Days doesn’t hold a candle to Gregg Allman’s version from Laid Back).

Standout Tracks : Sing (Travis), All i Want is You (U2)

Headless Heroes – The Silence Of Love
Like This Mortal Coil before them, Headless Heroes are a band formed around the idea of covering some great songs. With a roster of great musicians and a fantastic lead singer in Alela Diane these songs are given a timeless spirit.

Standout Tracks : True Love Will Find You In The End (Daniel Johnston), Just like Honey (The Jesus and Mary Chain)

Me First & the Gimme Gimmes – Have Another Ball
Not just a cover album, but a cover band. This is a collection of early, sometimes hard-to-get singles by the band. Listening to this comp vs. their most recent release shows how good they’ve gotten over the years, but they were never bad… picking from a crop of ’70s AM favorites, they prove there were good songs behind the sheen.

Standout Tracks : Mother and Child Reunion, The Boxer (yes, they should do a full Paul Simon album someday)

Scarlett Johansson – Anywhere I Lay My Head
I know I’m going to get shit for this one, but I enjoyed this album. Yes, I’m a Tom Waits fan… Yes, she occasionally sounds like a bullhorn… Yes, the production is sometimes over the top… but it’s great to hear Tom’s songs in a different setting and I get the feeling she really loves these songs.

Standout Tracks : Anywhere I Lay My Head, Falling Down (Tom Waits)

Shelby Lynne – Just A Little Lovin’
A tribute to Dusty Springfield, this is a great collection that showcases Shelby’s voice and her command of the material. It seems as if she had sung these songs for decades and brings a connection to the song similar to the one Dusty had. It’s easy to dismiss the material as cheese pop, but one listen will shake that.

Standout Tracks : Anyone Who Had a Heart (Burt Bacharach and Hal David), You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me (Pino Donaggio, Vito Pallavicini, Vicki Wickham, Simon Napier-Bell)

The Postmarks – By The Numbers
A great concept (12 songs, each with the number in the title) with a great distribution scheme (one single a month free on eMusic for the first 8 months of 08) that were totally unnecessary, as this album is one of the best of the year, covers or not. A great example of taking recognizable songs and giving them a new spin.

Standout Tracks : Five Years (David Bowie), Nine Million Rainy Days (The Jesus and Mary Chain)

Vetiver – Thing Of The Past
A bit of a freak-folk supergroup effort, but anchored by Andy Cabic, this album is a crate-digger’s paradise, filled with lost and obscure songs sure to stump many a music geek. A quick Google search results in a collection of the originals, which in some cases are far better than the Vetiver effort… but that’s cool, that’s why covers albums rock. Bonus points for having one of the best covers of the year, setting the mood for this entire LP.

Standout Tracks : Houses (Elyse Weinberg), Sleep a Million Years (Dia Joyce)

Monday is apparently the first day of Autumn. Leaves are starting to fall, the pool is closed, I find myself under the covers more often.

So, I put a close to my summer listening, which looks much less sunny and gleeful than summer should be, but it was a very introspective summer for me.

Here’s the top 20 artists Last.fm tells me I listened to the most often in the last 3 months.
(Not counting vinyl spinning of course).

David Bowie – 686 tracks, mostly from the Berlin Trilogy. I have a great fondness for Low.
The Gaslight Anthem – 359 tracks, pretty much all from their new LP ‘The ‘59 Sound’ by far the best album this year.
The Alarm – 206 tracks, mostly from their new album ‘Guerilla Tactics’
Joe Strummer – 178 tracks, mostly from a live bootleg from a 2002 Osaka show.
Poi Dog Pondering – 149 tracks, mostly from their new LP ‘7′
Against Me! – 138 tracks, mostly from ‘New Wave’ the best album of 2007, and their new B-sides EP.
Defiance, Ohio – 135 tracks. mainly from their recent LP ‘The Fear, The Fear, The Fear’ and quite a few listens of the track ‘Pool Hair’ from the Pink Couch Sessions (Link)
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – 120 tracks, mostly from their new compilation “Have Another Ball”
The Walkmen – 119 tracks, mostly from their new LP ‘You & Me’
John Cale – 113 tracks, mostly from ‘Paris 1919′ and his latest ‘Black Acetate’
Brian Eno & David Byrne – 109 tracks, all from their new LP ‘Everything That Happens’
Mercury Rev – 104 listens, mainly from their new LP ‘Snowflake Midnight’
Hifi Handgrenades – 102 listens, all from their grand LP ‘Carry On’
Daniel Lanois – 100 listens, mostly from his recent LP ‘Here Is What Is’
Cloud Cult – 100 listens, almost all from their magnificent LP ‘Feel Good Ghosts’
Glen Campbell – 98 listens, all from his oddly engaging covers album.
The Durutti Column – 95 listens, from his recent LP ‘Sunlight To Blue… Blue To Blackness’
The Who – 95 listens, mostly from ‘Quadropenia’ which is lodged forever into my top 20 albums of all time list.
The Clash – 91 listens, mostly bootleg live shows.
The Grates – 90 listens, all from their new LP ‘Teeth Lost, Hearts Won’

More of this list and more listening habits at Last.fm

In random 1980s Irish band news, perpetual Andrew favorite In Tua Nua have a new album out called When Night Came Down on Sunset. (Link)

Last I heard from them was the classic 1988 LP The Long Acre (Link)

I know Leslie Dowdall put out some solo LPs, but what I heard of them was a bit soft and not at all like In Tua Nua.

This new album sounds like it could have been released the year after The Long Acre, but then again, The Long Acre could have been released this year and sounded current. It’s pretty timeless, despite some Steve Lillywhite lingering around.

Although this video smells like my old dorm room:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht2pwrezktQ&hl=en]

Check out the new album, I find it to be high on the fantastic scale, and recommend it to all.

Most of their catalog is also available on Emusic.com.. check it out

Finally got to see them play live.

I’ve been a fan of the band for 20 years. I remember the first time I picked up their 5-song EP (on Cassette, of course) at a head shop in El Paso, TX.

The cover was great, happy and interesting. I had no idea who they were, but I bought it anyways.

Good music will find you.

By chance, I was in Nashville for a meeting, and the band happened to be playing a small club within walking distance of my hotel. Ian and I went to the show, and were treated to a great band playing great songs with a great crowd.

I highly recommend their new album, you can buy from the band or on amazon.

Photo from the Houston show a couple days earlier by baldheretic. I didn’t bring a camera.