Well, it's about time. Christmas has been getting all the good albums for years, while Hanukkah has been stuck with just Adam Sandler and a bunch of bad jokes. While there aren't a great bunch of classic Hanukkah songs to cover, some pretty good artists found a few to cover, and wrote a few more. Several are the usual jokes about dreidels, latkes and and menorahs, while others offer more serious lyrics, with some sublime songs.
Best, there are a few different music styles here. The Watkins Family Hour (featuring Sara and her brother Sean) present a bluegrass Hanukkah, doing a Woody Guthrie number called "Hannukah Dance" - who knew? Adam Green does alt-rock on "Dreidels Of Fire" and Yo La Tengo offers up a lush lounge cut, "Eight Candles". I'm not sure what Leonard Cohen's "If It Be Your Will" has to do with Hanukkah other than his Jewish heritage, but Haim do a lovely version.
Loudon Wainwright III does what he does, a comic song of some irony, where he points out that Irving Berlin, author of "White Christmas" was a Russian Jew. And the biggest surprise comes at the start and the finish of the record, each track performed by none other than Jack Black, each a traditional song, with Black using a singing voice somewhere between his Tenacious D character and a cantor. Yes, he was raised in the faith, went to Hebrew school and everything. Happy Hannukah everybody!
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