By Renny Logan
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Every holiday season, artists of every genre put out their own CD in light of the festivities. Some of these releases deserve a listen while others are just another wasted effort. Two major factors distinguish successful holiday CDs from the rest.

First off, style dictates everything about the CD. When a band or artist records a holiday CD, the style of music should remain the same. A consumer wouldn’t buy Celine Dion’s holiday collection “These Are Special Times” if he or she didn’t like Celine Dion to begin with. So when the Taste of Chaos tour crew gathered artists like Skindred, The Used and Opiate for the Masses to release “Taste of Christmas,” the post-hardcore and alternative hard rock bands produced some of the most original, as well as sometimes comical, Christmas and holiday songs ever. Their styles, though contradictory to the stereotypical mood of holiday songs, actually renewed the classic songs in a way their fans could easily enjoy. Their goal was executed well.

Often, lyrics on holiday collections have been written poorly and come off sounding forced. Instead, lyrics should be written in such a way that is neither purposeful nor accidental, but merely natural. On Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s “Everything You Want for Christmas,” the band, while staying true to its modern swing style, writes lyrics that are not all too different from their previous releases. The band’s lyrics on “Everything You Want for Christmas” sound as if their relevance to the holidays is merely incidental. On opening track “Rockabilly Christmas,” lyricist and vocalist Scotty Morris writes lyrics that both appeal to the band’s fan-base as well as provide holiday wishes. “T’was the night before Christmas/ And all through the land/ All the cats were jumpin’ to a big swing band./ Way past midnight till a quarter of two/ Jumpin’ to the sounds of Big Bad Voodoo./ As the singer explains steppin’ up to the mic/ Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night,” Morris writes.

Another important factor to consider when it comes to lyrics and style is not only composing holiday songs, but also choosing the right ones to cover. Plenty of classics have been done and redone over the years, but the best ones were not merely drawn out of a hat by the performer. Bands and vocalists should carefully select the songs that best suit their style. For instance, if Metallica randomly decided to make a holiday CD, it probably wouldn’t be their best choice to perform “Twelve Days of Christmas.” Even as a joke, the humor would be lost.

Jethro Tull provides an example of a good selection when the band selected “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman” to perform. Ian Anderson’s flute playing complemented the song perfectly, and the band’s style added a subtle but renewed feeling to the song. The only way the song could be improved, in my opinion, would be to add the vocals back in, as Anderson’s voice would be perfect for the song.

So just remember, when you feel nauseated by the thought of another whole December full of overdone holiday tunes, that there are successful CDs out there that might be a safe bet to surviving the season.