My bad for missing last week. It was a country music 5-pack, and between finals and country music being, well, country music, I wasn’t eager to write an in-depth analysis. Feel free to check out the songs’ info on the Master Song List.

December 23, 2008 (360/PS3)

Rockin’ the Holidays 2008 ($3 / 240 MSP or $1 / 80 MSP each)

• Barenaked Ladies – Hanukkah Blessings
• Billy Squier – Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You
• The Pretenders – Blue Christmas

Song info after the break.

Barenaked Ladies – Hanukkah Blessings ($0.99 / 80 MSP)

Jewish rockers (including Rock Band-featured Bob Dylan) rejoice – finally, a Rock Band song with lyrics in Yiddish! For those of you keeping track at home, this brings our total number of languages up to 6 (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Yiddish). More significantly, the much-requested Barenaked Ladies have finally made a RB appearance. “Hanukkah Blessings” is a great singalong song for guitarists, bassists, and pretty much anyone in the room, provided that you can fake Yiddish. The actual guitar and bass parts should be fairly straightforward, but the drums sound interesting and varied.
Pre-release verdict: Meh. Drummers will want to check out the chart. Otherwise, decide from the sound. Can’t go wrong for $1, though.

Billy Squier – Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You ($0.99 / 80 MSP)

’80s rocker Billy Squier, featured in Guitar Hero ’80s with “Lonely is the Night”, swings his way through the season with this mouthful of a song. “Christmas is the Time” is a basic swing beat with a nice, ’80s-y guitar solo in the middle, and much like the previous song, the chorus has got a big singalong going on. Guitarists will definitely want to check this one out for a nice guitar solo at $0.99, and drummers will want to check out the chart to see how it goes down. (Rock Band’s swing-beat songs can go either way on drums, but many have been excellent – see “Like a Fool” and “Don’t Make Me Wait”.)
Pre-release verdict: Probably worth it for $1. May not be the most technically challenging, but has plenty of cheesy energy your family or boy-/girlfriend will enjoy.

The Pretenders – Blue Christmas ($0.99 / 80 MSP)

(No video yet – song is brand new. Preview it on iTunes to get an idea.)

Coming from a just-released holiday EP, The Pretender’s present this year is an, um, interesting cover of “Blue Christmas”, originally made famous (but not written) by Elvis. This cover starts out as a usual version of the song – country-esque, slow, good guitar work. A bit of the way in, The Pretenders launch into an entirely different genre, punk, and the song goes on to end on more of a Ramones feel than an Elvis one. Instrumental charts, particularly guitar, should have some replay value here. Useless trivia: The Pretenders will be the fourth band to have both masters and covers in Rock Band, after Rush, Coheed and Cambria, and David Bowie.
Pre-release verdict: Guitarists should probably grab this while it’s $1. Everyone else should do the usual YouTube trawl for charts to make a decision. Just don’t expect it to be like the original version!