Special: Christmas CD 2021

2021 may have been a strange year overall but as much as things change some stay the same, hence we got a new What's A Partridge? What's A Pear Tree compilation for you as it's time for volume 13! The new album tracklisting is listed below as well as a mediafire link to go along with all past volumes. More of a Spotify guy? Well good news every song on one of these comps that is up on Spotify is in a handy playlist HERE and I also have a playlist of other music I tend to pull from for these comps right HERE

What's A Partridge? What's A Pear Tree? Volume 13:

1. Mayday Parade - I'm With You
2. Capital Lights - His Favourite Christmas Story
3. Butch Walker - Walking In A Winter Wonderland
4. Settle Your Scores - Xmas Exile
5. MxPx - Christmas Party
6. Reel Big Fish - Skank For Christmas
7. August Burns Red - Home Alone Theme
8. Golden Gate - Christmas Without You
9. BoyMeetsWorld - Home For The Holidays
10. Loveless & Downer Inc. - Last Christmas
11. Jaret & Kelly - Get Christmas Right
12. New Found Glory - Holiday Records
13. Descendants - Christmas Vacation
14. The Offspring - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
15. Janick Thibault - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
16. blink-182 - Boxing Day
17. Stellar Kart - Punk The Halls
18. Skatune Network - This Christmas
19. Simple Plan - Christmas Everyday
20. Green Day - Xmas Time Of Year

Link

What's A Partridge? What's A Pear Tree? Volume 12:

1. Dallon Weekes - Sickly Sweet Holiday
2. blink-182 - Not Another Christmas Song
3. Patent Pending - Jingle Bells Mazel Tov (Dreidel Song)
4. Bowling For Soup - Father Christmas
5. Relient K - Silver Bells
6. Senses Fail - Donde Esta Santa Claus
7. Story Untold - Silent Night
8. Butch Walker - Last Christmas
9. Jonas Brothers - Like It's Christmas
10. Dropkick Murphys - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
11. Goldfinger - Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
12. New Found Glory - December's Here
13. We The Kings - The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)
14. Reel Big Fish - Mele Kalikimaka
15. Taylor Swift - Christmases When You Were Mine
16. Good Charlotte - Let The World Be Still
17. Plain White T's - That Christmas Feeling
18. Dave Melillo - All I Want For Christmas Is You
19. MxPx - Punk Rawk Christmas
20. The Rocket Summer - O Holy Night

Link

What's A Partridge? What's A Pear Tree? Volume 11:

1. Aly & AJ - Greatest Time Of Year
2. Goldfinger - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
3. Echosmith - Baby Don't Leave Me (All Alone At Christmas)
4. Panic! At The Disco - Feels Like Christmas
5. Butch Walker - Frosty The Snowman
6. I Don't Know How But They Found Me - Merry Christmas Everybody
7. Set It Off - This Christmas (I'll Burn It To The Ground)
8. Creeper - Fairytale Of New York
9. Plain White T's - Do You Hear What I Hear
10. Patent Pending - A Better New Year
11. Fight Fair - Going Nowhere
12. Relient K - O Holy Night
13. Bowling For Soup - Miss You Most On Christmas
14. Taylor Swift - Christmas Must Be Something More
15. Carousel Kings - We Wish You A Merry Christmas/Auld Lang Syne
16. The Rocket Summer - Elf Creep
17. The Summer Set - This Christmas
18. Broadside - Wish List
19. MxPx Ft. Emily Whitehurst & Pierre Bouvier - December
20. Reel Big Fish - Whatever U Celebrate

Link

What's A Partridge? What's A Pear Tree? Greatest Hits Volume 1:

1. Anberlin - Baby Please Come Home
2. From The Top - Hot Chocolate Stains And Candy Canes
3. All Time Low - Fool's Holiday
4. A Change Of Pace - Christmas On The Coast
5. Plain White T's - Christmas Won't Be The Same Without You
6. Sunrise Skater Kids - 12 Days Of A Pop Punk Christmas
7. These Kids Wear Crowns Ft. Vital - You're My Mrs. Claus
8. Artist Vs. Poet - Airplanes And Candy Canes
9. Man Overboard - Decemberism
10. Unwritten Law Ft. Sum 41 - Unwritten Christmas
11. The Matches - December Is For Cynics
12. Relient K - Santa Claus Is Thumbing To Town
13. Divided By Friday - All I Want For Christmas Is You
14. The Summer Set - Love By Our Side
15. Bayside - Angels We Have Heard On High
16. Suckerpunch - This December
17. .fun. - Sleigh Ride
18. All These Lights - Christmas Wish
19. Hawk Nelson - Up On The Housetop
20. Good Charlotte - Last Christmas

Link

First 10 Volumes

Special: First Listen Thoughts: 5 Seconds Of Summer "Calm", August Burns Red "Guardians", Taurids "EP"

5 Seconds Of Summer - Calm

Label: Interscope

Press release: 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) will release CALM – their fourth studio album and first for Interscope Records – on March 27. Says lead vocalist Luke Hemmings, “For a band to make it to four albums is no small feat in itself but to be reinventing and constantly pushing our songwriting and to come out with music that we’ve never been more proud of makes me so happy to be in 5 Seconds of Summer. CALM speaks on a journey through a young man’s life, for better or for worse. We are all human and all make mistakes, sometimes we hurt the ones we love and inevitably, ourselves in the process.

My thoughts: Calm shows that 5SOS have found their lane as they're able to perfectly combine their pop sensibilities that the label wants to see, along with the emo influences they grew up on and the sound experimentation that the boys are playing around with now. On one hand the guitars are grinding, the next the bass is thumping and then we get hit with some synth beats. Upon first full listen the singles seem to be the highlights but to be fair that makes up half the album thus far.

August Burns Red - Guardians

Label: Fearless Records

Press release: Guardians is the name of the new album. It's their eighth overall, and it's on target for an April 3 street date via Fearless Records. the group is calling it one of their most collaborative efforts to date. Guitarist JB Brubaker says, "Guardians is the culmination of a complete and total team effort. Dustin and I collaborated musically more than we ever have before. Jake and Brent collaborated vocally more than they ever have before. Matt bounced more drum ideas off of us than we could even comprehend. It was the most time we've ever spent in the studio on one album. We're all so proud of this record, and we can't wait to share it with the world."

My thoughts: Guardians first single Defender is by far the strongest track on this record. That's not to say that the rest of Guardians is subpar, ABR is by far one of the most consistent band in metalcore. The blastbeats are always strong, the breakdowns are intense and the shouts are always on point. The problem with consistency is that it leaves less room for growth. If you hear a random track from Guardians or from their first album with Jake Luhrs on vocals you'd think they'd be on the same album from the same place in time.

Taurids - EP

Label: Self-released

Press release: Singer Will Pugh of Cartel announced a new side-project today saying "I started writing this a long time ago and finished it last year. I’m so excited to share this with everyone now because it was gonna be a while before we released this. With the situation at hand, it seemed like the universe was telling me “now”. The lyrical content and the overall theme of this EP are suited for what we’re all going through.

My thoughts: Cartel was one of my favourite bands of all time, mostly on the strength of Will's vocals. I'm sad they autotuned him up on this despite the fact that that's where the industry is going I hoped it'd keep it clean. Down Here is the highlight as a mid tempo bop with a dreamy synth providing the backdrop along with the regular instrumentation and of course the closest we get to classic Will vocals.