Sound and silence

Holiday tunes emerged and bloomed in our part of the world, this year as ev’ry in collective mem’ry. Festive music is as unifying and dividing as any ritual practice. In our own lives we might find ourselves on one or the other side of mirthful-musical enjoyment or annoyance, at any sung given time. 

O holy night, so few opportunities to start a sentence thusly. Last Christmas was probably it for most. I don’t want a lot for Christmas except to let it snow, let it snow. 

Would referring to a list be cheating? Yes, better to draw these from the surrounding air and to dive deep into reminiscences.

It was a Sunday this year when the first bars of Mariah Carey’s seminal classic drifted through our household. A neighbor girl sang them through our daughter’s toy karaoke machine. 

Last Christmas, I heard the Wham! song enough. The very next day, I heard it again. This year, what do I hear? A Jimmy Eat World cover from 2001 I had no idea existed despite having bought their long-playing album shortly after it had been released earlier that same year.

Among quirkier developments this season are festive songs generated by so-called artificial intelligence. Allegedly, convincing fakes have been intermixed into playlists of old standards on various streaming media platforms. This deep-faked cheer is somewhat discomfiting but not obviously harmful. What a time to be alive. 

Up on the rooftop: drip, drop drip. Do you dream like me of a white Christmas and a blizzardy New Year? Has all this rain made, for you, a blue, blue Christmas? It’s a bit noisier anyhow, streets wet—you can tell by the sound of the cars.

What are you doing New Year’s Eve? How are you bringing in a brand new year? Have you a new year’s resolution? Maybe for you it’s just another New Year’s Eve.

Do you have favorite songs that reference New Year’s Eve? I had to look up those last four, by Ella Fitzgerald (1960), Charles Brown (1996), Otis Redding and Carla Thomas (1967) and Barry Manilow (1977). 

Maybe more readers would recognize Taylor Swift’s “New Year’s Day” (2017). It’s a sweet ballad, featuring piano, acoustic guitar and Swift’s voice, solo and in layers, eventually in-the-round, and the song has eleventy billion plays on every media streaming platform.

But I had to look that one up too, since my favorite songs related to the holiday are more like the opening track of the album “Last Splash” (1993) by The Breeders. Yeah, not exactly a household name, but they had a huge influence on Olivia Rodrigo.

In conclusion, whether bouncing, swaying, or soaking up the sweet sound of silence, may aural your happiest holiday dreams come true. Merry Christmas and happy New Year.