Holiday Hell Yeah!＜Colored Vinyl＞

In the holiday rush, a number of seemingly random collections come out from artists left and right, showing off their novelty appeal with Christmas songs in styles ranging across the spectrum. Go Jimmy Go, a Hawaiian ska band, put their stake in the ground with this one. Ska probably isn't the first and foremost style amenable to the classic, slow Christmas songs, but it is an excellent genre for a good party. As an added trick, though, Go Jimmy Go have a series of original numbers here, with only a bit of overlap with the standard canon of holiday music. The album starts out with a nice bit of soul, before moving directly into ska proper. The ska-inflected rhythms can get a bit repetitive now and then, but the music is always interesting for what it is -- Hawaiian music with a Christmas bent, or perhaps Christmas music with a Jamaican bent. Either way, it's entertaining, with solid, fun songwriting from the crew and good performances all around. ~ Adam Greenberg