Tag: 2019

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Klô Pelgag “Marie-Noël” (2025)

Secret City Records
Buy: Bandcamp | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.fr MP3

I’m apparently back in 2022, when I was in my “somehow writing exclusively about French-language Christmas songs” phase. To be stereotypically American, I don’t speak other languages, and French just sounds so damn nice to the ear. I suppose that’s why the one language I do have some experience with—German—doesn’t often appear here on Christmas Underground… it just doesn’t have the same musical quality. I know, I know… how obvious. Well, buckle up while I do my best to share a song and not embarrass myself once again.

I’ll check out pretty much anything on Secret City Records. When something new drops, I explore. Thus, I’ve found myself over the past year picking up all of Klô Pelgag’s (aka Chloé Pelletier-Gagnon’s) records, and I’m only about one away from having them allllll. Again, I largely have no clue what the heck she’s singing… but I absolutely love the music. And to make it even better—she has Christmas songs.

Looking at Klô Pelgag’s holiday catalogue, they all share one quality: a more spare, classic production, rather than the upbeat alt-pop found on many of her records. So while the vibe is more straightforward, the result is no less spectacular.

Klô Pelgag began her holiday releases with 2019’s “Toute seule pour Noël,” which I believe to be the only original she’s released so far (unless she has another hidden on a proper record). Should you wish to translate it, you’ll find it’s quite a sad song—as the title “All Alone for Christmas” suggests. Her voice begins accompanied only by piano, but then the cello slips in and the emotion builds. It’s beautiful if you can get over the sadness, and sad Christmas songs are largely what I peddle here at CU.

She added to her holiday catalogue again with a cover of “Le sentier de neige,” or “The Snowy Path,” once again using a sparse piano arrangement. Originally released in 1964 by Les Classels, this Christmas waltz is about a couple in love who shared a kiss on a snowy path in the woods. Getting mushy in the mush!

Her most recent holiday track is a beautiful cover of “Marie-Noël,” first released by Robert Charlebois in 1967. You may recognize this song from Elliot Maginot’s 2023′ cover, which I obviously also recommend. Judging by the sheer number of covers, it seems to be a true Québécois Christmas classic. Klô Pelgag continues her sparse, piano-driven approach here, once again singing with an emotion that transcends language barriers.

Bottom Line: I think we all can agree that Klô Pelgag should release an entire solo piano Christmas record… right?

LISTEN

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Elliot Maginot “Christmas On My Mind” (2022)

Audiogram
Buy: Bandcamp

I bet you thought I’d keep posting French-language songs… so here’s the latest from Montréal, the English-language romantic with the French last name, Elliot Maginot. This singer-songwriter has been writing original Christmas songs for a few years now, each one with a different tone, but always with crisp pop production and big emotions. Elliot’s journey begins with 2018’s “Christmas Ain’t Enough,” with its familiar rhythms and retro feel, as well as some unexpected, beautiful lyrical moments. Take a listen below.

2019’s “I’ll Know My Savior (Christmas All Around),” takes the previous year’s retro pop production and turns the knob to the 1980s, with a shimmering, romantic 1980s pallet. I’m talking precise synths, a saxophone solo or two, big vocals, and even the 80s staple, chimes – the whole deal. It can feel a bit over-the-top, and it is wonderfully so.

Elliot’s 2020 release, “The Ballad of Mrs. Claus,” also has those 80s chimes and sax solos, yet somehow feels the most contemporary of his earlier tracks. The concept of the song – Mrs. Claus singing to Santa, worrying over him and this whole enterprise – is a concept that could easily have been made into a joke, but it is treated with such thoughtfulness that it is easy to forget that it is about Santa Claus.

After a year hiatus, Elliot returns once more with the beautiful “Christmas on My Mind.” This is his most lush production yet, as his voice turns into a choir singing out over a string section, and perhaps a soprano saxophone or two. However, it is the lyrics that steal the show. That first verse is a thing of beauty:

I never claimed to be a modern man/guess it just wasn’t in my bones
I know I used to be so stubborn then/just wandering like a rolling stone
Between my endless need for love/And everything I thought I knew
I should have known it wouldn’t really feel like Christmas without you.

In each of these songs, Elliot proves to have a wonderful, direct pipeline into some deep, emotional worlds… he must have a wonderful therapist. Please give me the number.

Honestly, there was something about Elliot’s aesthetic that initially made me suspect him and the pop sensibilities he gravitates toward. This is very much not a pop Christmas blog. But there is always something a little askew with him… like in “I’ll Know my Savior,” when he goes pop, he leans in so hard that you start to imagine how big and fantastic it might sound on stage in your local venue. He drove right through my suspicions and busted out the other side. It has truly been a journey listening to these songs by Elliot Maginot.

Bottom Line: These songs feel devotional, without being specifically religious – very much the qualities I enjoy in a Sufjan Stevens Christmas song, just with vastly different production. Somewhat of a revelation, I’m 100% on board with Elliot’s unique, emotional Christmas catalog.

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Tino Drima “I Wish That it Was Christmas” (2019)

Park the Van Records
Buy: 7Digital (MP3) | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3 | Amazon.fr MP3

Going through my drafts is always fun. Here’s a pearl that led off my Christmas mix last year, yet somehow never made an official entry on the site. Get ready for some extremely modest exposure, Tino Drima!

California’s Tino Drima somehow snuck this gold nugget by us all… and I’m honestly amazed that I’m the first website to highlight this fantastic song. The groove is infectious, and Tino’s relaxed vocals give the song a swagger not often found in Christmas music. For those who listened to 2021’s “This is Just a Modern Xmas Song” (and there may be about 300 of you out there in the billions that live on earth), I hope you Shazamed that first song, hunted it down, and have found a home for this song on your mix this year.

Bottom Line: This song deserves to be an indie rock Christmas classic.

LISTEN

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Sharks’ Teeth – The Christmas on Christmas (2019)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

By far, the most ambitious Christmas record I have come across in recent years is The Christmas on Christmas, by New Orleans’ Sharks’ Teeth. This record is massive – 25 original songs written from a perspective that no other band (that I’m familiar with) has come within yards of. To give you some more context, this is how the band introduced the record when it was released in 2019: “We call it our ‘Occult/Polytheistic/at times aggressively astrological Christmas album’ and it’s 25 tracks of brand new, original, slightly subversive yuletide pop… This record is meant to celebrate and create through the array of frameworks of traditions from this world that eventually became our Christmas. Hopefully we’ve done that without promoting monotheism or intrinsically saying that anyone else’s spiritual worldview is wrong or invalid.” Honestly, reading that makes my eyes cross and my attention pique in tandem. Sonically, the record sounds fantastic, with some particularly wonderful guitar lines. I love how the songs often have multiple movements, perhaps best experienced between the prayerful first half, and the upbeat second half of “And You Know it isn’t Christ,” which contains some of my favorite guitar work. The Christmas on Christmas sounds like a War on Drugs-meets-Flaming Lips opera, bubbling with steady-beat indie rock, vaguely 80s guitars, experimental detours, and filtered vocals. It is one of the most fascinating Christmas records I’ve ever heard – I honestly feel like the best advice I can give is to throw them a few bucks (it is name-your-own price) and go for a nice walk.

Bottom Line: Massive in scope, this record is like nothing else you’ll hear this season… or next season… or next… or…

LISTEN

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Now, Now “Lonely Christmas” (2019)

Moodring Record Co.
Buy: 7Digital (FLAC/MP3) | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3 | Amazon.fr MP3

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.

LISTEN

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The Happy Somethings “It’s Christmas Time (We’re as Miserable as Sin)” (Blizzard Version) (2018/2019/2020)

Golden Believers Records
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

My favorite track off of last year’s A Very Cherry Christmas 13 (still available!) has been re-released with a new “Bah Humbug Blizzard” version! The Happy Somethings‘ ode to being miserable on Christmas an odd delight. I absolutely love the groove in this song. Putting together your mix? Need a dance break with bleak lyrics? Let me sell you this song!

(How do you like my update job mess?)

Bottom Line: Indiepop misery at its finest! And it is free! And it is for charity!

LISTEN

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Self Esteem “All I Want for Christmas is a Work Email” (2019)

A Fiction Records Recording / Universal Music
Buy: 7Digital FLAC/MP3 | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3 | Amazon.fr MP3

Self Esteem is Rebecca Lucy Taylor, previously known as half of indie-Christmas royalty Slow Club (RIP Slow Club). Her solo work is certainly more pop-forward than Slow Club ever was. While I don’t normally gravitate to pop, please be rest-assured, Self Esteem is not your normal pop project – the term experimental pop has been thrown around and I might be on board for that description. “All I Want for Christmas is a Work Email” doesn’t sound like anything else on my Christmas playlist, with a sparsely adorned mix of bitterness, self-loathing, and big pop vocals. Somehow I didn’t write about this last year, and since there is no expiration on good music or Twinkies, eat up.

Bottom Line: Here’s a pop Christmas tune for folks who don’t like pop Christmas.

LISTEN

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Marcos y Molduras “La de Navidad” (2018/2019)

Discos de Kirlian
Buy: Bandcamp

Madrid’s Marcos y Molduras decided to revisit “La de Navidad,” which featured on their first single in 2018, and give it a full makeover… which as you know, can go either way…

facebook has reminded us that ‘a day like today …’ a year ago we published for the first time “worse would be to kill”, which included this anti-Christmas carol that, at these dates, we cannot continue to ignore.

so we have re-done it, this time with a little more affection and with less uncertainty about what our friends will think about it. We already know they like it, we hope you do too 🙂

Marcos y Molduras, Bandcamp

Well, as you might assume, the procedure was a smashing success. Sometimes I am all about lyrics, sometimes I’m all about FEELING. This song just FEELS SO GOOD. I do not speak Spanish (I took German in high school), but that has certianly never stopped me from jamming to some incredible spanish-language Christmas songs. I did some Google translate, and I’m even down for the anti-Christmas message. The food is too expensive, the families are loud and the businessmen are obnoxious. Christmas in the big city can be pretty shitty, especially without you.

So with that, Merry Christmas and try not to smile… even though you know the gist of the lyrics. I dare ya… Just feels too good eh? This is a stone-cold Christmas-mix hit.

Bottom Line: “La de Navidad” is bound to lead to involuntary movement of your feet, legs, head and mouth. Buy it, listen to it four times, and tweet at me in the morning.

LISTEN

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Cecilia Ebba & Emma Miller – Winter EP (2019)

Emma Miller and Cecilia Ebba - Winter EP

Self Released
Buy: 7Digital MP3 | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Spotify (not in the U.S.)

If you did a quick survey of what I’ve been writing about lately, a lot of the music has been a bit critical, sad, profane, and perhaps a bit silly at times. Yeah, I do like that stuff, no doubt about it. Just hook me up and feed it to my veins directly.

But… as I do… I am also a sucker for music that feels wonderfully genuine. 2019’s Winter EP is exactly this – beautiful and genuine. Cecilia Ebba and Emma Miller are two extremely talented writers and vocalists, and they sound so good together that you could easily be mistaken for believing that they do this all the time! But no, London-based Swede Cecilia Ebba and Scotland-based Emma Miller have only collaborated on this one-off Christmas EP! The songs are thoughtful, loving, nostalgic, and fucking beautiful. The leadoff track, “Snowy Roads,” is simple in premise and brilliant in execution. The vocal lines make turns that you wouldn’t expect, but love, and then the chorus begins, and in come these beautiful strings. While I was already taken with the vocals in “Snowy Roads,” we haven’t even seen what these two voices can do together until the second track, “Apple Tree.” This lullaby to an apple tree is a fantastic premise to create a beautiful visual of a calm, snowy winter night, made only more spectacular by their interwoven voices. “December” sounds like a sister to “Snowy Roads,” with its spare piano bed and scaled-back harmonies (in comparison to “Apple Tree”). This one might get you, with its lyrics of lost love, but the holidays are gonna do that to you anyways, and it might as well sound this good. The finale (to me) is actually the next-to-last track, “Winter.” I don’t think there is an instrument on this track, it is all their beautiful layered vocals. This song has some of their best lines as well: “The aches and pains of yesterday unravel in the warmth. / So lay me down in winter snow / and watch it all melt away.” That is some truly gorgeous stuff.

So yeah, they also have a very nice version of “Silent Night” as well. Technically, that is the closer… but I’m here for the originals.

If there is justice in the world, this record will be released by a fantastic label on a beautiful 10″ record. I’ve added it to my vision board. Now it is up to you, universe.

Bottom Line: Front to back, this record is undeniably good. To have an EP with four original songs that are this strong… this record deserves both your attention and your money because you are going to want to listen to this for years to come.

LISTEN

I am adding Soundcloud embeds so that they can be indexed by sites like the Hype Machine, but you really need to look up the entire EP on your preferred streaming/buying service. Remember, buying means WAY more than streaming, so go buy.

EDIT: This release appears to be disappearing everywhere… which sucks.

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Lagniappe Kernow Records’ Home 4 Xmas E​.​P. (2019)

Lagniappe Kernow Records
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

What a happy accident. I stumbled upon this little Home for Xmas E.P., and found it to be an absolute delight. Four songs (five if you consider a version without the swears a truly additional song), each with its own charm. The leadoff, titular track, “Home 4 Xmas” by The Winona Project, has this oddly captivating, descending melody that ties the song together beautifully. Klaus!’s cover of “Good King Wenceslas” is a very solid version, with these great spoken-word pieces sprinkled in. You might think that this would be too cheesy, and while I do not deny a dash of cheese, it most certainly works. Speaking of spoken-word, Lumpkin Judkins & The Nom De Plumes’ “An Xmoose Tale,” is most definitely spoken-word, and who would have guessed… IT IS FANTASTIC. The music underneath the story sets the mood perfectly, and the text has these moments of humor that even after multiple listens, would still make me smile. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a spoken-word “Christmas song” like this before, but I know for certain haven’t heard one that I liked this much… that is for damn sure. Finally, The Charles Bronson Quintet’s “Merry Lil’ Christmas” is at its core, a very pleasant instrumental cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” but they overlay some captured audio that makes this delicate Christmas classic just that little bit… profane; A pleasant dash of “fuck you” sprinkles on top of your Christmas cookie. What a delicious, unexpected treat from Lagniappe Kernow Records. *Chef’s kiss*

Bottom Line: I rather think that folks will find their own favorite from this handful of tunes, as each has a unique charm that could appeal to you, my weirdo Christmas music friends.