Little My – Little My’s Fourth (2007)

Little My's Fourth

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

There must be a significant (well, it’s all proportional!) readership who enjoy a good twee-Christmas tune, because I sure do write a good bit about indiepop. Thus, if you have an indiepop itch that needs a good scratch, Little My’s Fourth will do the trick. Cardiff’s Little My are up to their 11th release now, and have recently come back from five-year hiatus. Thus, their fourth release was a good while ago, yet somehow I haven’t come across it until now! The 2-song single leads off with an original, “Xmas Song,” which is chock-full of jingle bells, soft voices, and was that a recorder? It’s classic indiepop Christmas, pretty music with sad lyrics. “I’ll have a sad, sad christmas with a sad, sad look on my face / since you’ve gone away.” Thankfully the music keeps this song from entering dirge territory – so I think you could get away with having it on your mix without bringing everyone down.

The second song is a Shakin’ Stevens cover, the oft-(but not enough!) covered “Merry Christmas Everyone.” Their version is certainly a nice little indiepop version, but it did not jump out at me as the Kate Canaveral version from last year. Still, a solid tune, but more-so because I like the song, not necessarily how they tackled it.

Bottom Line: Little My have done up 2 solid indiepop Christmas tunes for a cool £1, or perhaps splurge a bit and get one of the 2 remaining CDs? Sure! Certainly good enough to hope that they do some more Christmas tunes in the future. 4/5

LISTEN

Young War “I Won’t Come Back For Christmas (I’m Serious)” (2014)

Young War "I Won't Come Back For Christmas (I'm Serious)"

Self Released
Buy: Stream

Young War‘s “I Won’t Come Back For Christmas (I’m Serious)” is a great blend of indie rock and R&B. I love the whole concept of the song – he is not coming back for Christmas just so you know he’s serious. Its beautifully done, and very much worth your time. But don’t take my word for it. Take Lie in the Sound or Christmas A-Go-Go’s advice, and give it a listen (and/or download it via some nefarious Firefox plugin… or something). They gave it so much love last year, so much that I didn’t really find myself needing to help too much. I saw this on numerous mixes last year – it was certainly deemed a highlight of the season. That said, the song is good enough that I knew I’d be compelled to write about it at some point. Hey Young War – I hope this comes back around next year via Bandcamp.

Bottom Line: Wonderfully produced, great lyrics, great vocals and (was) free. 4.8/5

LISTEN

Young War has been kind enough to give me permission to upload and stream their wonderful Christmas song. It had previously been a free download via their Soundcloud page, but they took it down from their own feed.