Pitchfork

Bad news, Nation: Stephen Colbert has made fun of Sacramento, Calif., the closest major city to me for most of my childhood. Yes, I know, it's true: I was once a child. While interviewing Sacramento mayor-elect Kevin Johnson last week on "The Colbert Report", the otherwise-delightful TV news personality called Sacramento-- and I quote-- "unbelievably boring." So it's with deepest regret I have to report that "Another Christmas Song", from the digital-only soundtrack to Colbert's upcoming Christmas special, is as clever an entry into the novelty Xmas cash-in genre as you're likely to hear this holiday season. Colbert may hate on my hometown, but his time in the theater program at my undergraduate alma mater has clearly served his velvety pipes well. Braying horns and self-aware lyrics make for a jazzy little holiday carol somewhere between "Sleigh Ride" and the theme from "Family Guy". I'm not such a Grinch that I can't appreciate couplets like "Public to whom I'm so proud to have pandered/ Please save my children and make this a standard." It's not as good as an apology-- hell, even Canton, South Dakota, got that courtesy, Stephen--  but at least it's slightly less annoying than "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". This is one year you just might be glad to find coal in your digital stocking. Colbert, that is.

[from the A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All OST EP; due 11/25/08 via iTunes]