Smokey Robinson

Fuckin’ Christmas! YEAH! Gonna find some Christmas tunes for us today! Just going to pick some recent Christmas albums and take a random track from them. Ooh, bonus: PUP playing a Christmas adaptation of “Kids” with some puppets dancing around!

Calexico, “Seasonal Shift”

The title track from Calexico’s just released Christmas album, Calexico is a natural for making a lovely Christmas album. Everything this band does is beautiful, so it’s going to fit totally in with the season. I heartily endorse this record!

Here’s your music today.

Ghostface Killah, “Be This Way”

From what I can tell, 2004’s The Pretty Toney Album didn’t seem to go over that well with critics. Perhaps because it’s an album where Ghostface started really pulling away from the Wu-Tang Clan. However, I think it’s really good - Ghost seems to be pretty loose, and while the album is sloppy in parts, it’s nevertheless really fun. After the relatively dreary Bulletproof Wallets, it was a relief for him to get back on track.

Some serious immortals today! And, um, 17 seconds of silence.

Smokey Robinson, “Swept For You Baby”

We’re visiting 1967 with this song, with quintessential Motown artist and arguably the soul behind the soul, Smokey Robinson. It would be futile to list all the tremendous songs he’s been involved with, and I couldn’t really do him justice. Just enjoy this song.

Einstürzende Neubauten, “Partynummer [Live]”

This track comes from Strategies Against Architecture II, a roundup of singles, live tracks, and various unreleased music primarily from the late 80s. In a lot of ways, this documents the end of the first phase of their career, as after this album came out, their music trended away from the power tools and more towards ambient pieces and electronics. It’s a great collection, though, and one of the better entry points to Neubauten’s catalog.