Ok, we got the giggles out of our systems last week, and we’re ready to talk about music like a couple of proper grown-ups. This week we reflect on Passover and Easter and listen to two more traditional holiday songs – “Mi Yimalel” as performed by Neal Katz, and “O Holy Night” as performed by David Phelps. It’s serious stuff this week, y’all. Also: RJ performs a wee robot song.
Thank you to Andrew for requesting “O Holy Night”!
You may be celebrating Passover or Easter this week, but here on HARK as per tradition, we’re celebrating April the 20th. Join us as we try to invigorate our 4/20 spirit with two Christmas songs about the dank herb – “Santa Claus is Smoking Reefer” by Squirrel Nut Zippers and “Christmas Trees” by Major Lazer.
This week by request, we’re looking at some old-school carols that are new to the list! “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman/We Three Kings” by Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan brings us comfort and joy, while “Good King Wenceslaus” by The Roches comes to us bearing charm, wine, and life lessons.
Thank you to lettinggoisthehardestpart and Thom for the requests!
What is the sound of snow falling? Is it like one hand clapping, or is it like, a person playing with a big pile of buttons? We investigate this and other ethereal mysteries as we review “Listen, the Snow is Falling” by Galaxie 500 and its predecessor “Listen, the Snow is Falling” by Yoko Ono.
This week it’s all elves, all the time! By request, we cover two songs about elf OCs. “An Elf Named Moe” by Carl Stuck is an earnest ode to a North Pole middle-manager, while “Barry the Elf” by Bucko & Champs cheerfully tells the tale of a rude, lewd, and crude layabout.
Spring is nearly here! Whether you’re desperate for sunshine or already wistfully missing those snowflakes, the two songs we cover this week – “White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes and “Strawberry Snow” by Brenda Lee – will hopefully have some comfort to offer you through this seasonal change.
We’re celebrating St. Joseph’s Day with two Italian Christmas songs! Well, Christmas songs in Italian, at least. Weeell… Christmas songs in Italian, or about Italy, or at least, sort of Italy-adjacent. We did our best. “Bianco Natale” by legendary Italian musician Mina transports us to the Italy of the 1960s, while “Buon Natale” by Nat King Cole transports us to, I dunno, some kind of weird fantasy Italy where phones never got invented?
This week, one of the calendar’s most somber holidays befalls us again. No, not Ash Wednesday – we’re talking about the return of Daylight Savings Time and the loss of that precious, precious hour. If you’re like us and you need every second you can get, maybe you’ll appreciate the short songs we chose for this week – “Holly Jolly Christmas” as performed by Michael Bublé is consistently Bublé, while “Good to Be Bad” by Pentatonix delivers an unexpected twist that has us contemplating a life of crime. Or at least, movies about a life of crime featuring Pentatonix.
This week, we celebrate Mardi Gras en français with a pair of songs hailing from the province of Quebec. “Fa la la” by Bündock is strange but charming, while “Le temps d’une dinde” by Roland Hi! Ha! Tremblay is … stranger and less charming? If you’re from Quebec and/or a French speaker who would like to explain the context we’re surely missing in this episode, please email us.
Valentine’s Day is upon us once again, and this year we’re tackling some holiday songs about love and romance that also turned out to be kind of spooky? By request, we listen to “Dear Santa (Bring me a Man this Christmas)” by The Weather Girls, which is weird but mostly charming. We pair it with “Christmas Eve” by Justin Bieber, which somehow manages to be even weirder, and also charmless.
