Vibeke Saugestad, Norwegian singer and keyboard player for The Yum-Yums (The Ramones of power pop), put out a wonderful Xmas ep a few years ago on PopDetective Records. So often people put out Christmas records and in many cases its merely a bunch of versions (fairly straight or revved up) of traditional songs, & that can be OK, or even great! And if you love Marilyn Manson, you wouldn't be able to do without his holiday tribute, whether it was good (or evil) enough to merit a purchase. But Vibeke actually put out an ep with 5 excellent celebratory Christmas originals that sound like they could have been high-octane versions of old classics! Definitely a worthy addition to the oeuvre. The disc starts out with a bang with the great pop tune "I must have been so good". After that follows "mistletoe kissing" & "jingle jangle Christmas", faster high charged tunes. The 4th song A Christmas Carol (for losers in love) follows much in the vein of the opening track. The ep ends beautifully with a winsome ballad, Christmas is calling me home. As far as Christmas music goes this gets a rating of 5 golden rings.
Vibeke is great--check out some videos of hers on YouTube & her terrific non-denominational full length World Famous Hat Trick. She has two other albums Overdrive & Into the Shimmering that were released in her native country, but I haven't been able to find them anywhere. Also check out the Yum-Yums--they have a record Whatever Rhymes with Baby on Popdetective & also a cheap compilation of their earlier music, Sweetest Candy, out on Kid Tested Records.
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