Customer Reviews

Carol Of The Bells

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Since I was a kid this song has been a favorite Christmas song, and I'm not partial to all the "holiday music". This version has the alluring and almost eerie feel of the song. Worth 99 cents.

I know it's not Christmas, but I think I've just come across the greatest recording I've ever heard--seriously. Enough to knock my revolving door of Beach Boys/Van Dyke Parks Smile tracks from the top spot. It's the Bird and the Bee's 2007 version of the Ukrainian Christmas carol, "Carol of the Bells." I just came across it this week as I was filling in the gaps of my Bird and the Bee/Inara George collection with singles and one-offs, as I simultaneously ordered their new effort of Hall & Oates covers. This is everything I need in a song--from cinematic instrumentals (I can't help but believe, accordingly, that Michael Andrews didn't have some hand in the production here) to veritably sublime vocals. Inara George is second to none in that department. And I love the photo as well--very early-mid 60s modernist aesthetic--calling to mind the library/den settings of the Beach Boys "In My Room" performance on the Red Skelton show in 1964 and the Beatles "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" portion of Help! in the Dick Lester film a year later. Do yourself a favor and download this tune. But take a look at yourself in the mirror first, 'cause you won't be the same person afterward. This is mind-blowing, psychedelic, spooky yet transcendent baroque pop at its absolute finest. Between the Bird and the Bee, Wilson and Parks, Andrews, and Wondermints, there can be little question as to whether Los Angeles is once again the epicenter of psych-pop music.