Verve Forecast has announced a new compilation to celebrate Hanukkah. The record, produced by Randall Poster and titled Hanukkah+, comes out digitally on November 22. (Hanukkah begins one month later this year, on the night of Sunday, December 22.) The album features new songs and covers from the Flaming Lips, Yo La Tengo, Jack Black, Holy Ghost!’s Alex Frankel, and more. It also finds HAIM covering Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be Your Will.” Check out the tracklist, as well as Cohen’s original, below.
Hanukkah+ was inspired by Yo La Tengo’s annual Hanukkah concerts, according to a press release. The band said in a statement:
When our old friend Randy Poster asked us to contribute to an album of
Hanukkah songs he was putting together, we were kind of stumped. As
non-practicing Jews (and non-Jews), truthfully the holiday has little
meaning for us (that’s the meta joke behind Yo La Tengo’s Hanukkah
shows), but we were open to inspiration. We thought maybe another
friend, Sam Elwitt, could crack the code, and we think he did a
fantastic job with his composition “Eight Candles.”
Like Yo La Tengo, HAIM love to celebrate Hanukkah. They’ve crafted a special Hanukkah song in the past and also sold t-shirts for the holiday.
Hanukkah+:
01 Jack Black: “Oh Hanukkah”
02 Adam Green: “Dreidels of Fire”
03 Yo La Tengo: “Eight Candles”
04 HAIM: “If It Be Your Will”
05 The Flaming Lips: “Sing It Now, Sing It Somehow”
06 Alex Frankel: “Hanukkah in ’96”
07 Buzzy Lee: “Give You Everything”
08 Tommy Guerrero: “Dedication”
09 Loudon Wainwright III: “Eight Nights a Week”
10 Watkins Family Hour: “Hanukkah Dance”
11 Craig Wedren: “Sanctuary”
12 Jack Black: “Chad Gadya (Passover Bonus)”