Various Artists "Christmas in Heaven"

Various Artists

Christmas in Heaven

1996 Flying Tart Records

Produced By: Alex Parker

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Track Listing

You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch (3:05) - Sixpence None the Richer

Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight) (1:47) - The Huntingtons

Tennessee Christmas (5:17) - Aleixa

There's No Christmas on the Moon (2:56) - Thee Spivies

Come On Ring Those Bells (2:57) - Phantasmic

Do They Know It's Christmas? (4:44) - The Echoing Green

Feliz Navidad (3:50) - Duraluxe

Tiffany's Christmas Tree (4:12) - Irwin Icon (featuring Russ Long)

Carol of the Bells (1:49) - One 21

She Won't Be Home (3:00) - Deitiphobia

Tis the Season of Excess (6:01) - Steve Hindalong & Chris Colbert

Christmas Wishes (4:38) - Backwoods (featuring Buka of Argyle Park)

Blue Xmas (To Whom it May Concern) (4:39) - Love Bucket & Slapphappy Super-Fly

Christmas in Cobb County (4:37) - Joe Christmas

I've got a small collection of "Christian" Christmas albums and this album has to be the most...er, interesting collection in my library. Being on the Flying Tart label I should have known that it was going to contain an eclectic variety of music. I remember when I first browsed the song selection not being familiar with many of these songs. 20 years later I'm still not familiar with many of these songs! However, it's fun to pull out and listen to a few times during the Christmas season.

The album opens up with the classic "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". If you aren't familiar with this song then I have no idea where you've been. The Huntingtons not surprisingly give us a cover of a Ramones song. It's pretty catchy and the band does a great job with it.

Aleixa, a band I'm vaguely familiar with puts a dance/techno on the Amy Grant classic "Tennessee Christmas", but also work in a bit of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. This may be my favorite track on the album. "There's No Christmas on the Moon" is an original song by Thee Spivies, produced by Andy Prickett of Prayer Chain fame. It's got a punk sound...it's OK.

I only have one Phastasmic album, but I've always loved Tess Wiley's vocals. I wasn't familiar with their version of the song "Come On Ring Those Bells", but it's got a great "old sound" to it and one that I really enjoy. The Echoing Green gives a pretty good rendition of the song first made popular by Band Aid.

Duraluxe, formally known as Fluffy, give us a very off beat and odd version of "Feliz Navidad". I love how in the liner notes it credits the vocals to Chris Colbert with an question mark and exclamation point. This is a song I usually skip over. I'm not sure what to make of Irwin Icon as I don't know who they are. It seems they have an original song, which is OK at best.

One 21 is a punk band and their version of "Carol of the Bells" is, well a punk version of an old Christmas song. Next. Deitiphobia provides a cover of a song first performed by Erasure...and I really dig it. This could be my 3rd favorite song on the album?

Steve Hindalong (the Choir) & Chris Colbert, aka Skinny & Crisco Bear. All you need to know is the lyric "fatty doesn't need another piece of pie". Backwoods features Buka of Argyle Park give is the original song"Christmas Wishes" and it sounds excellent. In the liner notes it states that Buka and Dan are fully sorry for a song like this, though if it weren't for a society that puts money in front of a Savior we wouldn't have a reason to sing a song of this nature.

Lovebucket and Slapphappy Super-Fly...who? Yeah, me too. They cover the Miles Davis song "Blue Christmas". Not too fond of this one. On to the next, a band I've actually heard of! Joe Christmas supply an original song that sounds like pretty much every other Joe Christmas song I've heard. That's not a bad thing either.

Overall this is a pretty good collection of songs. I do usually skip over a few that I don't care for, but the majority of it really is good. At the time of this post there are two copies of this album available on eBay for around $20. There doesn't appear to be any sold data there so I have no idea if that is a fair price. I know a lot of the Flying Tart stuff can sometimes be hard to find, but your mileage may vary.