Each December, every place imaginable seems to scream with Christmas music. And every time, Jews are left in the dust when it comes to music that celebrates their dueling December holiday: Hanukkah. Sure, you could spin some Matisyahu or that one G-d awful Adam Sandler song, but the landscape of Hanukkah music is as dry as the Judaean desert. Luckily, 2014 hath bringeth a wealth of contemporary albums for this holiday from some of coolest names in music today.
How Bout Hanukkah by Drake
Eight nights of Hanukkah equals eight nights of heartbreak on How Bout Hanukkah, the highly anticipated holiday album from our favorite Bar Mitzvah’d rapper. Throughout the album, Drake recounts a litany of his most profound Hanukkah regrets, as well as some of his fondest memories ("Remember one night I went to Erykah Badu’s house/ She made tea for me/ She did a Hanukkah reenactment/ Dressed up like a Maccabee for me"). Of course, "Hold On, We’re Going to Shul" is the feel-good sing-along highlight. If last year’s Nothing Was the Same was the album in which Drake suggested that his last name is Mordecai, then this is the album where he truly owns it. It might not be Rosh Hashanah yet, but Drake still makes this holiday feel more than high.
A Happy Hanukkah with Ezra Koenig by Ezra Koenig
With songs like "I Think Ur A Goy", "One (Bubbe’s Got a New Face)", and "The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance (at Dreidel)", Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Keonig gives Hanukkah tradition a colorful calypso update . Throughout the record, Koenig riffs on the stiff rituals of the holiday and Jewish family life in this collection of his breezy Hanukkah anthems. "A man of faith said hidden eyes could see what I was thinking," he sings on the track "Hanukkah Hunt", "I just smiled and told him, grandpa, I’ll tweet that." The standout gem here might be a somber reworking of VW’s "Cousins", on which Koenig just aggressively wails “me and my cousins, you and your cousins” over a steel-drum beat until he begs his relatives to leave the house after the candle lighting. The cover features Koenig modeling his sweater collection.
Hanukkah in the Heart by Bob Dylan
Four years after releasing his Christmas album, Bob Dylan digs back into the holiday songbook for Hanukkah in the Heart. Perhaps inspired by the intensive archival pursuits of his recent Basement Tapes box set, on Hanukkah in the Heart, Dylan gathers together a whopping eight discs, mixing Hanukkah classics as well as some originals, penned specifically for this collection. Check out "The Hanukkah Prayer (Take 3, from Night 3)" to hear a giggling Dylan attempt to sing the beloved holiday blessing to the tune of "Margaritaville". And then there’s "The Temple", the album’s 14-minute centerpiece, in which Dylan weaves together the story of the Hanukkah with a stone-faced retelling of the plot of 8 Crazy Nights. Not a lot here for casual Hanukkah-music listeners, but for Dylan completists, it’s a veritable gelt-mine.
Forever Hanukkah by Haim
If you’ve adopted the completely invented tradition of gift-giving on Hanukkah, then Forever Hanukkah by Haim will bring an Este "bass face"-worthy expression to those who are gifted this record. These three wise Cali Jewesses have assembled an infectious record of tightly composed R&B-tinged holiday rock that will get even the most aggressively reformed back into the Hanukkah spirit. On "Doughnuts Are Gone" the trio laments the fact that they’ve seemingly eaten all of the jelly-food treats their mom has made. "When I lost control over them all," Danielle Haim sings, "'Cause I want them all, I want them all." Haven’t we all been there? And on "Go Slow, Judah" the girls pen an ode to the Maccabees and the flickering lights of the miracle menorah. The deluxe edition of Forever Hanukkah also comes with a step-by-step guide for a choreographed Bat Mitzvah-routine worthy dance to their track, "If I Could Make You Believe (In Miracles)", a bag of gelt embossed with the Haim sisters’ faces on it, and black leather yarmulke.
Ariel Pink's Hanukkah Graffiti by Ariel Pink
Recorded during breaks between PR mishaps, Ariel Pink’s Hanukkah Graffiti was, according to the press release, supposed to be the album to shift Pink’s objective “from starting beefs to sharing latkes”. Despite featuring several Judaically themed song titles including "Put Your Candle in My Menorah", "Kugel Boogie", and "Menopause Mensch", the majority of the set offers no holiday spirit. Instead, the songs are cluttered with dog sounds, lo-fi noodling, and good old-fashioned kvetching about life in LA. Most baffling is "Hanukkah Medley", which is less a Hanukkah Medley and more a diss track targeting the Salvation Army and expressing "spiritual allegiance" to Ayn Rand. Maybe next Hanukkah, Pink should spend less time on Twitter and more in the siddur.