Ian and RJ are forgoing the usual episode structure this week to instead deal with an appeal! Er, of sorts – using a testing method devised by Ian, our co-hosts finally decide whether or not they will act on their long-standing threat to switch the places of two songs on the list: “Ipod Xmas” by Hello Saferide and “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Dragon Tuesday. And to celebrate, we listen to two draconic Christmas songs! First is “Darcy the Dragon” by Roger Whittaker, which leaves some questions unanswered regarding both Darcy himself and the events of his Christmas errands. Then “Fly On Christmas Dragon” by Robby Grant splits open our brains – not because its lyrics pose any deep or complex quandaries, but for reasons we can’t quite put our fingers on.
The ranking music this week is the Peace Keepers homeworld theme from Spyro the Dragon.
As Diwali approaches, we listen two winter holiday songs by Desi artists. Our first song, “All of the Lights” by Vivek Shraya, is a blend of elements lovingly arranged into a beautiful whole. Then we say as much as we can say about “Desi Jingle Bells” by Lilly Singh.
Shraya’s essay about her Diwali/Christmas EP All of the Lights can be found here!
The ranking music in this episode is “New Jingle Horse” by Geeta Brothers Duet Group.
Shraya’s essay about her Diwali/Christmas EP All of the Lights can be found here!
The ranking music in this episode is “New Jingle Horse” by Geeta Brothers Duet Group.
It’s time for our annual Halloween-Christmas crossover episode, in which we listen to two spooooky winter holiday songs! This year, in recognition of the 5-year anniversary of our first Halloween episode, we’re revisiting the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s musical offerings with “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fishmen,” and then dipping into the Nightmare Before Christmas well again with “Kidnap the Sandy Claws” as performed by Korn.
This week’s ranking music is “It’s Halloween (A Christmas Song)” by Randy Brooks!
We’re back after a short autumn recess, and we’ve got a lot to say, apparently. You know what else is back after a brief delay? The CMT Music Awards. In celebration(?), we’re listening to Christmas songs by some of this year’s nominees: “What Time Is It?” by LoCash (or maybe LOCASH), and “You Make It Feel Like Christmas” by Gwen Stefani featuring Blake Shelton.
This week’s ranking music is “Heaven Let Your Eent Shine Down“.
In honor of the High Holy Days, we’re covering two Hanukkah songs this week! Both of our selections come from the album Hanukkah+ – a fresh, hip compilation from 2019 featuring some of our long-time favorite bands and artists. Or, well… one of our long-time favorite bands (Yo La Tengo with “Eight Candles”) and also an artist that we definitely don’t not like but who even can tell (Adam Green with “Dreidels of Fire”).
Our ranking music this week is “Jessica” by Adam Green.
This week’s ranking music is, in fact, “WAP” by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion.
This week on HARK: two requests from 19X7, possibly requested in 20X7! We are digging into some old, old requests and wind up listening to two songs that feel very representative of their respective decades. “It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)” by Roxette feels so 80s for a song that didn’t reach its peak until the 80s were (arguably) over, while “Christmas” by Blues Traveller is the kind of song you probably couldn’t get away with writing after 1997 unless you’re Phish (also, Phish did kind of write this song).
Our ranking music this week is “Hook” by Blues Traveller.
Thank you to Mindy and paulsebert for these requests!
Our ranking music this week is “There She Goes” by Sixpence None the Richer.
Thank you to Matt and Maya for these requests!
For this week’s HARK, we return to a request that we split up earlier in the year. Listener Tim requested Yogi Yorgesson and paired it with “Reindeer” by Swedish band The Knife, for a tenuous Sweden theme. This week, we’re honoring the spirit of that request by pairing “Reindeer” with a song by another Swedish artist: “Correspondence: Silent Night” by Annika Norlin.
This week’s ranking music is “iPod X-Mas” by one of Norlin’s other projects, Hello Saferide.
Thanks again to Tim for the request!