Another year of hectic times is upon us and another Black Friday looms as consumers go on a annual frenzy to find the best gifts for the best people in their life at the best prices. As always, music acts as so much more than an easy go-to gift, it’s also such a healing agent for the soul, a celebratory agent for the emotional, a fun agent for mindless loose times, and a true passionate art manifested for all, those creating it and those absorbing it. Here are some bright musical spots on the holiday radar this year, a bakers dozen to choose from.

Check out our 2018 Holiday Geek Gift Guide for Music“¦

The French Connection, which remains one of the benchmarks in the history of cinema, particularly instrumental in ushering in a new wave of motion pictures during the latter quarter of the 20th Century in which real, gritty, uncensored, and violent police crime drama narratives were portrayed realistically, uncensored, and cinematically expertly, celebrates its 45th anniversary today.

Originally released on October 9th, 1971 in the United States, The French Connection is based on a true story about a French shipping magnate who plans to smuggle over $30 million in heroin to America to make a deal with some New York underworld gangsters, only to have it thwarted by a ragged yet alpha duo of unconventional and extremely unorthodox cops.