I'd like to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas! I hope everybody has a fun, relaxing day tomorrow. For now, I have a few early Christmas gifts for you!

First off, my best gift so far has been a short snippet of the Ark's new single "Absolutely No Decorum," over at their website. From what I can hear, it sounds like another future classic from my favorite band. Kind of a cross between Calleth You, Cometh I and One Of Us Is Gonna Die Young... brilliant already.

Speaking of the Ark (and really, when am I not speaking of them?), they also released a very old performance video of the Christmas classic O Helga Natt (O Holy Night for those who don't speak Swedish). I've got the video and the mp3 for you today.



The Ark - O Helga Natt

Third, (even though it's been posted all over the place already) I just had to post my favorite modern day Christmas song (forgetting of course that Mariah Carey's brilliant All I Want For Christmas doesn't exist). Darren's gives us the definitive version of this Wham classic and turns it into a brilliant pop song, Christmas or no Christmas.

Darren Hayes - Last Christmas

Finally, I'm posting quite possibly the worst Christmas song (and video) ever. There are people who love this, and for those that do... stop reading now. Christmas Shoes is the most schmaltzy, overdone thing I have heard this season. The singing coupled with the banal lyrics gets me everytime. The thing is, if you don't laugh at this, it really is one of the most depressing songs ever recorded. Don't get me wrong... I am not against "heartwarming" stuff, but god that chorus is lame.



I'll be back the day after Christmas to continue the end-of-the-year countdowns!