Xmas Music For A Year We Wanna Forget
Merry Freakin' 2020
I’d like to think that most of us have a love/hate thing with holiday music. We get steamed when we have to hear the same ol’ classics 100’s of times. But if we’re with friends/family singing the same songs, we get the spirit. By now, plenty of artists have figured out how fleece us during holiday time but some also make it worse our while and remember why we look forward to the end of the year- time off from work, getting/giving presents, getting together with loved ones. No get togethers and our sense of time/work is all screwed up this year but there is some music to get keep us a little sane until we get our vaccine shot.
Some of the biggest country artists came up with good Christmas music to get us through the rest of the year, including Cary Underwood My Gift, Dolly Parton A Holly Dolly Christmas and let us not forget Lil Nas X.
With all due respect to Meghan Trainor’s A Very Trainor Christmas, The Flaming Lips’
“A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn't So)” and the Goo Goo Dolls’ It's Christmas All Over, I wanna share some more obscure Xmas music choice this year and it turns out that there’s a lot of it, totaling almost 40 new ones & six oldies- there was everything from heavy metal to Western swing to dream pop to ambient to rap to drag queens to jazz to folk to soul to bluegrass to classical.
Happy holidaze, y’all.
Anti-Flag “The War On Christmas is Over (If You Buy It)”
30 years plus on, these Pittsburgh punks declare war not love, tossing their presents into a hearty figure and flipping off ‘you pagan whores.’
Art of Shock “No Presents for Christmas”
Sure, death metal ain’t the first thing you think of for Christmas music but this King Diamond cover has the real holiday spirit- getting mad about a lump of coal in their stockings (plus a nice bits of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”).
Bendelacreme · Jinkx Monsoon “That Kind of Holiday Show”
“Deck the halls with alcohol” say this pair of glorious drag queens, romping around in old school campy pop. And if you need more, you can rent their whole holiday special here.
The Beths “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”
Some melancholy slow-dance cheer from this wonderful Kiwi indie quartet. If you need something more upbeat, try the B-side “Happy Unhappy.”
Big Freedia Featuring Flo Milli “Better Be”
What’s the holiday time without some New Orleans bounce? Hilariously NSFW by the 2nd line and all fun.
Blades of Joy MMXXXMAS
As it turns out, minimal dream pop makes for perfect caroling. Supposedly available until Christmas so get it now.
Ray Blue “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”
A sax-piano duo with jazzy/bluesy vibe that might bring you back to Vince Guaraldi’s wonderful score for the Charlie Brown Xmas.
Anna Burch “Your Heart May Be Heavy”
A gentle lilting song about wintertime- an aural hot cup of cocoa that we could all use.
Charly Bliss x PUP “It's Christmas and I Fucking Miss You”
A dynamic pairing for sure. Ah, indie rockers- such subtly. Catchy too.
Boyracer “Harehills Christmas“
Indie pop grrls need holiday cheer too.
Calexico “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”
John & Yoko’s peace anthem goes Americana. If you need more of it, Dean & Britta also did a spacy version of the song too this year.
Chassol “Holiday for Reich”
Jingle those bells for a classical minimalist with percussion and heavenly choirs, just like Uncle Steve.
Terri Clark It's Christmas... Cheers!
Even though she’s an incredibly consistent country hitmaker, she still manages to be underrated. Maybe no surprise that she made one of the best holiday records this year. Along with the video stream below, the whole album is available on her website too.
Drunken Prayer “It's Christmastime”
“My sweet baby is ho-ho-ho’ing around” laments this Western swing tune.
Kelly Finnigan A Joyful Sound
Need a revival of some late ‘60’s/early ‘70’s smooth soul? Of course you do.
girl in red “two queens in a king sized bed”
A lovely pop dream and as commentator captainblacktears 353 says, ‘When 2020 sucks but then ✨lesbian christmas music✨’
Hamell On Trial “Santa Says (Christmas Pandemic)”
Leave it to his great jokey folky to put the holiday in context for 2020. Frig the whole season he says.
The Infamous Stringdusters “Little Drummer Boy”
Bluegrass Xmas music? Sounds freaky, but give it a chance and it makes total sense, really capturing the cozy spirit of a snowy winter night.
Jingle Bells
From a label that specializes in evocative dark ambient music comes a whole album of it (plus some gloomy indie pop) keyed to Xmas. Seasonal depression at its best- come all ye to commiserate.
The Just Joans “Card From A Multipack”
Mix a heavy Scottish brogue with strings and sympathetic femme backing vocals over indie folk-pop and voilà, you have this nifty little tune.
Josh Kimbrough “Poor Little Jesus”
A bluesy/folky take on this widely covered African American spiritual tune with layers of acoustic guitars really evokes a wintry landscape. If this grabs you, also hear Will Matthews’ The Heart of Winter.
Mark Lanegan “Dark Mark Does Christmas 2020”
The great Northwest (former Screaming Trees) singer has a thing for holiday music, going back about a decade, and he obviously has a feel for it, turning gloom into yearning roots-music on his new EP.
Little Boots “Christmas Will Be Different”
This lovable Brit electrpop diva hits the season right on the nose with the title alone for this sweet hopeful ditty.
The Long Blondes “Christmas is Cancelled”
If Blondie could make good with girl-group-meets-garage-rock, why can’t these Brits too? The song’s about heartache but the title could just as well be about this COVID holiday time.
Lydia Loveless "Merry Christmas"
Definitely a good year for sweet sadness, here coming via indie pop and in the video, a friendly wolf.
Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets “Winter Wonderland”
A great pairing for years now, Nick the Knife and these roots-rocking luchadores add a Tex-Mex lilt to this classic.
Minimal Schlager (ft. Eddie Argos & Laura Lee) “Fireworks”
Sure, why not a sweet ‘n’ sad synth-pop holiday tune, especially with a rant from the Art Brut front man?
Mountain Main “Greensleeves”
Need to be a little more traditional? Try this brief femme acapella take on this folk tune.
Tami Neilson "Pretty Paper"
This rockabilly singer had one of the best albums of 2020 (CHICKABOOM!) so maybe it’s just as well that she caps off the year with a tear-jerking version of the Willie Nelson tune.
Sara Noelle “Christmas At Sea”
With the perfect name for this music and rightfully wanting to ‘‘forget this year,’’ we get some airy, ethereal cheer, electronica-pop.
Pins “Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)”
This great trashy dance-pop girl trio gets sweet & retro on this Ramones cover, sounding as if Phil Spector was coming back to produce (haunt) them.
Prima Donna “Mistletoe Blues”
A good year for rockabilly Xmas. Good figure.
Nathaniel Rateliff & Elle King “Xmas to Forget”
“It’s gonna take time, wine, liquor, speed to get there” they harmonize on this country-goes-girl-group song but they’re determined, as we should all should be to forget Xmas 2020. They’re pushing aside the eggnog for beer and dreaming of Willie.
J.D. Shelburne “Run Run Rudolph”
Keith Richards beat him to it but this Chuck Berry song definitely deserves a revival and needs to be heard more.
Soraia “Santa Claus”
St. Nick might not like garage rock since he didn’t give this Philly band a present but shouldn’t they at least get “a cute little honey with lots of money” for their trouble?
Joey Stuckey “Santa Play That Guitar”
Bluesman says all he wants for Xmas is Kris Kringle playing a six string. Pretty reasonable request, right? Helps that Stuckey can play pretty well himself.
3D Jazz Trio “Winter Wonderland”
Charming piano/bass/drum trio has a whole album of lovely jazzy holiday standards on Bandcamp.
Tweens “Christmas Mourning”
This Midwest indie band is usually a lot more raucous but they sound just right in this mournful, charming holiday ballad.
Wicked of Ghetto Mafia “Santa’s in his Bag”
As James Brown once said, ‘Santa Go Straight to the Ghetto.’ And please bring an iPad and Air Jordans.
Mars Williams An Ayler Xmas Vol. 4: Chicago vs. NYC
Courtesy of the longtime Psychedelic Furs saxman, another installment in his tribute to fellow madman and jazz legend Albert Ayler, recorded live. His 20 minute romps can be exhausting but they’re exhilarating too.
Yellow6 Days (merry6mas 2020)
Jon Attwood has been crafting holiday music for years and for 2020, he’s collected a group of moody, quiet post-rock guitar instrumentals that manifested themselves during the lockdown. As such, it does have a somewhat sad vibe but also something of a hopeful side to it, which we all need.
REISSUES
A few holiday oldies but goodies that are available again.
The incredible NYC salsa music label had a boxed set worth of music that’s not just “Feliz Navidad” though that’s included here of course too.
Amerigo Gazaway A Christmas Album (Holiday Remixes)
Now reissued on vinyl, this 2019 release from the mash-up master includes his wonderful mix of samples, break-beats and unusual sources, making me wonder why “Christmas In Hollis” is one of the few great hip hop holiday songs. Digitally available here too.
Lindstrøm “Little Drummer Boy”
Originally from 2009, this techno maven builds on the minimal march beat into layered vocals and building synth grandeur.
Buck Owens And The Buckaroos A Merry “Hee Haw” Christmas
He’s usually remembered nowadays as the co-host of the country-comedy TV series that bares the album’s name but he was also an important country-rock pioneer years before Gram Parsons. This album collects his Xmas records from ‘65 and ‘68 (pre-dating the show) and includes mostly originals, including a bunch of honky-tonk beauts.
Tim Story Silent Cycles
From all the way back in 2019 (which seems like ages ago), a classical/minimalist mash-up of 15 versions of “Silent Night” that seems to shimmer and glisten for 75 minutes.
Jackie Wilson Merry Christmas From Jackie Wilson
From one of the golden voices of R&B, this 1963 album let him stretch his pipes around ye olde standards in a full-throated way that Elvis fans would also appreciate.