Around the winter holidays, they say there’s no business like snow business. BETTY, in moods varying from utterly upbeat, as we’re told it should be, to verging on suicidal, take you through the full range of emotional options for the holidays. Released in 2004, this album has BETTY in flat-out rock+roll mode, but also in distinctive three-voice a cappella.

In the future, there will be holiday seasons, and ‘Space Age Solstice’ is a stab at what might be coming, with a whiff of gender politics thrown in. Sometimes things don’t work out. We’ve all been there. ‘Holiday Office Party (Blues)’ gives the gory details (I got stuck under the mistletoe/with a guy named Lou/who works down in the mailroom/and has symptoms like the flu). Makes you feel better already? More optimistically, ‘Georgia’ deals in up-beat love affairs, and ‘Miracles Can Happen’ proves that they do.

Alyson Palmer: bass, vocals
Amy Ziff: cello, vocals, ‘Vertigo’ keyboard
Elizabeth Ziff: guitar, vocals, ‘Carnival’ keyboard
Tony Salvatore: guitars
Mino Gori: drums, percussion
Mike Thorne: keyboards
Allison Miller: bongos
Genya Ravan: harmonica
Gloria Steinem: hope

Produced by Mike Thorne

Running time: 28 minutes.

Much more detail at the Stereo Society website (see link at left)