The Newsroom

The good folks at Centricity were kind enough to hook me up with an advance copy of the Bethlehem Skyline Vol. 2 CD , which comes out on Tuesday. And it was an advance copy. I got it in August, a full month before the CD came out, and, well, a long time before Christmas. I actually put off writing this review until mid-September because it just didn't feel right to be reviewing Christmas music when it was summer. I'll warn readers in advance: While I'm a big fan of Christmas, I'm not a big fan of modern-day Christmas albums. They tend to feature either lukewarm renditions of Christmas classics or mediocre new Christmas songs that will never become classics.

Sixteen Cities is a new band signed to Centricity Records (home to Downhere, amongst others) that got its start in a public school setting. Their debut album reflects that to some degree - it's light pop rock (described in the band's promo material as "modern rock") and, I dunno, maybe high school kids will like it.