The best gifts are the ones you don’t expect. And we had a few pleasant surprises to unwrap on Thursday, thanks to the generosity of the late-night TV gods. The coolest offering might have been the duo of Sharon Van Etten and Norah Jones, who joined forces to turn Van Etten’s runaway anthem Seventeen into a ballad on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. But don’t sleep on Kentucky’s White Reaper, dropping a double-shot of indie-rock goodness — in the form of the songs Might Be Right and Real Long Time — on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Naturally, there was also seasonal fare to be had and heard: The Late Late Show With James Corden pandered to the masses by having Mariah Carey mouth along with the backing track to her inexplicably ubiquitous All I Want For Christmas Is You, while Late Night With Seth Meyers took a more comedic approach by letting Ana Gasteyer serve up the title cut from her recent holiday album Sugar and Booze. Finally, for those who can’t get to sleep without watching some random pop singer flog a forgettable single, Dua Lipa was there with a spirited version of Don’t Start Now (not to be confused with They Might Be Giants’ vastly superior Don’t Let’s Start) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Barring some big surprise, those should be the final late-night offerings of 2019. So allow me to say: A merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
https://youtu.be/P-ZbZdVEOdc
https://youtu.be/0kEQK6_TmNs
https://youtu.be/qLyQdJQNhSQ
