Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp
You all are catching me in the final stage of my Christmas mixin… doing my best folks!
Aux Caroling (aka Scott Deaver) returns for the third year in a row with a handful of new, original Christmas tunes… and once again, I’m smitten. These songs have a warmth and humor that I enjoyed so much that I then went and bought them, despite being sent the MP3s earlier. I loved every song, but clever readers will know that I set the bar a long time ago to never talk about every single song on a record, either out of laziness or arrogance – you decide! (They are all great btw.)
You will never hear another Christmas song quite like “Bob Dylan and the Band Box Set,” which runs through the Bob Dylan box set the protagonist hopes to get for Christmas. How does one do this? Well, disc by disc of a 27-disc box set of course. I listened to this on the way to drop my son off this morning, and he found it amusing enough to comment on even while reading comics. High praise.
“Michael Clayton Blu-ray” continues the saga that began with “Is Michael Clayton a Christmas Movie?” on Aux Caroling’s 2022 record, Holly, Jolly, Melancholy. The song is quick and clever, and according to Scott, the song is “the running joke that will not die. Though the original was less a joke and just a song. But definitely in joke territory now.” I do enjoy the joke 🙂
My favorite moment of this record is actually the ending. The final song, “Keep it Together,” is a slow meditation, what I imagine to be an affirmation to get through the season with those complicated people and relationships in your life. “Keep it together / Say Merry Christmas and go away.” I connect with that… but I was most moved by the orchestration itself – how the outro builds in with these gentle, abrasive, beautiful tones. La da da dadada…
Bottom Line: Yet again, short, funny, beautiful, poignant and sad all mashed up in a way that only Aux Caroling can.
Christmas Underground 