Singles/Tracks – Page 20 – Christmas Underground

November 30, 2021December 1, 2021

Billy Nomates “Christmas is for Lovers, Ghosts & Children” (2021)

Did that title grab you? Are you breathing? Well, the payoff is there, don’t worry. Brit Billy Nomates (the stage name for Tor Maries) has a new Christmas song and it is this oddly fun, while emotional experience. Nomates’ has put together this weird upbeat, emotional song with some heavy lyrics – highlighted best in this beautiful chorus:

What I’m seeing
What I’m hearing
Doesn’t add up to the season
that I’m feeling
When the people that you love
go slowly disappearing
and when you gave your heart
yeah they gave it back.

Christmas is a complicated time, best and perhaps only ideally experienced by lovers, ghosts, and children… as it isn’t complicated for them; They are either fully engaged with the love and wonder of Christmas, or living in an alternate existence. The folks living in the middle that have to deal with all the real shit. Those are some deep feelings, and I can dig it…

The song is only name-your-price during this December, and all proceeds go to Feed the Homeless Bristol. So give generously.

Also, HT to Ned for the heads up! I actually get notifications from Invada sent to my home screen from way back when I was trying to get a Jonsi soundtrack… but you even beat that!

Bottom Line: Billy Nomates grabs us with a title, and wows us with the execution. This one will make a mix or two (thousand).

LISTEN

November 30, 2021November 22, 2022

The Fisherman and His Soul (featuring The Radio Field) “Santa’s Bat” (2021)

Platiruma!!!
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

Münster, Germany’s The Fisherman and His Soul is back with his yearly Christmas single, and this one is a Lemonheads-esque jam! Teaming with Düsseldorf’s The Radio Field to provide that booster of jangly 90’s-era college rock, this track has placed me in my freshman dorm room with my buddy Phil. The layered instrumentation, the tiny touches of brass (either real or sampled), and that driving beat… sign me up. And since they have offered, I will use the fridge, but I might be hiding some beer.

Bottom Line: The Fisherman and His Soul NEVER write a boring Christmas song. Last year’s was about a wasp (and a plague, but that USED to be weird…)!

LISTEN

November 29, 2021November 30, 2021

Gabrielle Aplin “Just Like Christmas” (2021)

People like to talk about how there hasn’t been a new, modern Christmas standard since “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Stereogum is trying to shoehorn a whole bunch of forgettable songs into the standards category, but you have to scroll to the comments to get the true answer… Low’s majestic “Just Like Christmas” is indeed a new standard. How so? Well… because it has been and will be consistently covered from now until eternity by artists of taste and stature (and of no particular stature as well!). Will Ariana’s “Santa Tell Me” get covered by anybody but some big pop act? Probably not – and frankly my guess is her song will likely live on as largely a trendy clothing store playlist experience. “Just Like Christmas,” however, is beautiful, simple, and downright incredible. Its simplicity lends itself to reinterpretation (as the true classics often do), and year-upon-year an artist or two adds a new stellar version to the mix. This year I present English singer-songwriter Gabrielle Aplin‘s version to be considered as one of the best out there. Gabrielle strips it down, chooses some interesting lyrical phrasing, and leaves me shaking my head with how brilliantly she controls her voice. Color me impressed and put yet another brick on the pedestal lifting Low’s new holiday standard.

Bottom Line: Gabrielle Aplin wields her vocal weapon with perfection on this most excellent cover.

LISTEN

November 29, 2021

Memorial “In the Arms of December” (2021)

Real Kind Records
Buy: Apple Music (so far)

Soundcloud has been paying off rather well lately, with the latest discovering coming in the form of this beautiful, Christmas-adjacent song from the UK’s Memorial. The folk duo premiered their new song on the blog Wonderland about a week ago, and it is one of those writeups that really makes you wonder whether you should even try to say anything else about it–but here it goes. It makes me think of those distant relationships, those relationships that you deeply value, but are slowly fading. We all have those, they warm us with memories and meaning, while making us cry. Their voices, in tandem with the simple, airy production fits the lyrics so perfectly, to surgically attack that part of your brain where you hold both your love and regret. So… you are forewarned.

Bottom Line: One of those perfect, emotional songs bound for the kind of Christmas mixer that reads this blog.

LISTEN/WATCH

November 21, 2021November 22, 2021

Nicky William – It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2021)

Icons Creating Evil Art (ICEA)
Buy: Bandcamp

There is something about Gothenberg that breeds oddly wonderful, crooning indiepop artists. Of course, there is Jens Lekman (a personal favorite)… and now there is Nicky William, certainly a future favorite of mine. I’ve been listening to Nicky’s new Christmas single for a little bit now (it was on Soundcloud earlier than Bandcamp), and it has most certainly grown on me. My initial reaction was, “Well, this is nice, but it is just another cover.” However, a few listens in, and there is just something about the marriage of this classic song, the simple instrumentation, and Nicky’s deep voice that I’ve really fallen for. I find it quite earnest and beautiful, oddly soothing in its nature. However, this pretty song may very well be a divisive Christmas Rorschach test (or what color was that dress test!), as his intention was quite interesting:

Talking about his new single, Nicky William says: ”We wanted to make a version of a classic but still add something new to it. In this song, we tried to add an uncertainty about whether the message in the song was ironic or not, hoping that the listener would have a different experience hearing the song, depending on how they feel about the holiday.”

There is also an “Alte Glühwein Version” (AKA Old Mulled Wine Version) that adds a touch here and there, such as the crackle at the beginning – either an old recording or a warm fire – you choose. Both are quite lovely… or are they quite sad? Just how jaded are my readers… we shall see.

Bottom Line: A beautiful little Christmas test, tailor-made for this Swedish indiepop loving blogger.

LISTEN

November 19, 2021November 19, 2021

Benjamin Francis Leftwich “Tinsel in the River” (2021)

Dirty Hit
Buy: Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3 | Amazon.fr MP3

The track all over the blogs today is this little, melancholy beauty by Benjamin Francis Leftwich, titled “Tinsel in the River.” I’m going to crib the same quote that everyone else is to give you some background:

“‘Tinsel In The River’ is a song about sitting alone over the Christmas period and reflecting over the previous year of love, loss and what could have been – but flew out of one’s hands… The song is set against the Christmas party season in the town in Yorkshire where I am from. The city comes alive with: the party, the bag, loving fellowship – and also chaos.”

There are some great lines in here, and I’m particularly fond of the second verse:

Now, I’m not one for wishing
On a star so far away
But they’ve made the city glisten
With lights you can’t escape
Well, there’s tinsel in the river
And the world is on the piss
Still I’d carol sing forever
If you turned up on December 25th

The production is simple, airy, and warm – wrapping the song in a snug little package. I don’t really have any notes here – it’s just lovely. I’m guessing some of you are going to love this short little melancholy tune as much as I do.

Bottom Line: Short, emotional, and beautifully produced.

LISTEN

November 19, 2021

Boat Water “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” (2020)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

There are a number of songs out there that just seem to get covered the same ways… and boy is it refreshing to hear something new. Baltimore’s Boat Water has taken the excellent Ramones’ Christmas classic, “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight),” and found a new way inside that is truly engaging. The keyboard lines, the pacing, the phrasing – I don’t believe I’ve heard it done quite like this, and thank goodness I now have. There are so many small changes that are unexpected and just fucking delightful. There’s also a cover of a Blink 182 Christmas song… but I am both unfamiliar with it, and don’t really care. They’re not my jam, but maybe they are yours! Art is subjective! I have terrible taste!

Bottom Line: An absolutely stellar cover of a Christmas classic (and one that I’m not already sick of!)

LISTEN

November 18, 2021

Sara Noelle “Like Snow (Slowly Falling)” (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

After last year’s wonderful “Christmas at Sea,” Los Angeles’ Sara Noelle just mike make these holiday songs a tradition. Similar to last year, we get one original song and one cover. Hmmm… sounds like Sara needs to hook up with the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club – cause that’s what they do too! “Like Snow (Slowly Falling)” has left the Bon Iver-reminiscent acoustic/electronic collage of “Christmas at Sea” for much more ethereal production. As the title suggests (by not referencing Christmas), this is much more of a winter tune, which Sara describes as a “wintry song about getting lost in a swirling snow globe of emotions.” I found it to be quite beautiful, and look forward to next year’s edition!

Bottom Line: Emotional and ethereal beauty.

LISTEN

November 17, 2021

Kansas Bible Company “Feliz Navidad” (2020)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

A perennial favorite, Kansas Bible Company is one of those bands I always look for around the holiday season. Whatever they touch is going to be a lot of fun, and I can’t believe I didn’t get to writing about this song last year. Wait… I can. The later you put out your Christmas song, the better chance it’ll get drowned out by all the other releases (or I’m completely exhausted). I’m doing my best to make up for missing it… as last year’s cover of “Feliz Navidad” was truly a joyful rendition that deserves to be boogied down to. KBC has a wonderful combination of brass and guitars, and their shared solos in the middle of this song is a perfect example of this musical conversation. Of note – they also properly released “Blue Christmas,” their collaboration with Okey Dokey, which had been previously released under the moniker of The Nashville Country Cowboys in 2016. So add that to your Spotify playlist too… you kids and your streaming….

Bottom Line: KBC can make the telephone book (remember those??) sound fun.

LISTEN

November 16, 2021November 27, 2021

Now, Now “Lonely Christmas” (2019)

Take equal parts Robyn and Haim, and oddly a dash of a more synthy War on Drugs, add them to a glass of eggnog or mulled wine and you have Now, Now’s excellent, 2019 Christmas jam “Lonely Christmas.” All of those comparisons are meant to say, this song is catchy as hell and really well done. Had ANY of those above artists recorded this song, it would be EVERYWHERE. Gotta love that saxophone solo at the end… readers of this blog will know that is like crack to me. Tasteful saxophone… just inject it directly into my blood.

Bottom Line: About as poppy as I get and totally worth the trip towards Mainstreet.