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Various Artists
The Big '80s - Christmas
(Rhino, 2001)
"Thank God it's Christmas!" sighs Freddie Mercury with palpable relief on Queen's seasonal epic, and we all felt his pain throughout the now ancient decade of the 1980s. Whether it was weathering the recession or merely praying that Santa left an Atari under the Christmas tree, the overall feeling created by this compilation is that the holiday provided a necessary respite from desperate times. It's also a tale of two countries. Almost all the American spins on Yuletide themes hearken to the '50s like Norman Rockwell in blue suede shoes - for specifics, see Hall & Oates' rockabilly treatment of "Jingle Bell Rock" In contrast, the Brits dress their puddings with irony. Squeeze replay the Nativity in a hotel room on "Christmas Day," and David Bowie crashes Bing Crosby's canasta party on "Little Drummer Boy." The notable exceptions? A wondrous "December Will be Magic Again" from Kate Bush, where you practically hear the falling snow kissing the ground, and Bob & Doug McKenzie's "Twelve Days of Christmas," which dazedly implies that in Canada, nostalgia is a hangover.
Jim Macnie
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