Tag: Denmark

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UPCOMING: Snowflake Christmas Singles Club 2026 (12/11/2026)

Snowflakes Christmas Singles
Buy: Snowflakes | Bandcamp

There are a few of us Christmas music bloggers (check out my blogroll!) who enjoy hunting down interesting new (or old) Christmas tunes and sharing them with the billions of people on the planet who are hanging on every spelling error we make. Then, there are people like Robert over at the Snowflake Christmas Singles Club who actually release NEW Christmas music into the world. Robert loves Christmas music, specifically Christmas 7″ records (read his blog too!), and as they say, he puts his money where his mouth is, and we all benefit.

The premise of the Snowflake Christmas Singles Club (from here on, SCSC) is to have a brand-new Christmas/winter/holiday song on the A-side, with a cover chosen by the band on the flip. Pressed on snow-white vinyl and limited to 320 copies, these records are a special treat that has introduced me to many mix-worthy tunes in the past. How about we take a look at the 2026 crop of releases!

The first band that caught my eye is the jangle-pop band Josie from Denmark. With nods to C86 and twee pop, you know this badass motherfucker is going to be down to clown. Sorry… I get all aggro when I talk about my love of twee, jangly indiepop – as we all do, yes? My buddy Ned also loves and recommends their debut LP, A Life on Sweets Alone, and our Venn diagram of musical taste very much overlaps with indiepop wonderfulness. Their cover of the Orchids’ 1964 song “Mr. Scrooge” sounds incredibly intriguing: “Josie sticks fairly closely to the original arrangement and adds 1980s indie pop sensibilities to create the perfect fusion of 1960s girl pop and 1980s indie pop.” I want to listen to an entire record that sounds like that.

How about some MORE indiepop! Yes please! I’m only now being introduced to Amelia and The Housewifes, but hey – they’re pretty new! Their self-titled debut LP only came out in October, so I can’t beat myself up too much. What I have heard of that record has me terribly excited to hear their new song, “Snowgaze.” But now I have to wait until DECEMBER… but at least I can buy their S/T record for something to pass the time with!

Bristol’s Eva May sounds like a singer out of time. I just listened to her latest 7″, Where Does the Time Go (limited to 250 and still available on Full Time Hobby), and I’m feeling some serious Joni Mitchell vibes. Her holiday original, “Softly,” even promises to incorporate folk and avant-garde jazz elements… so that’s another data point for a Joni Mitchell comparison. Which, to be fair, is like comparing someone to Michael Jordan – flattering for sure, but what a weight of expectation. Let’s just take it as pure flattery, and wet your whistle on that other 7″ I was talking about while we wait.

Finally, we’ve got some reggae/ska/rocksteady in the final single, produced by UK-based producer, musician, music teacher, and studio and label owner Neil Anderson of Original Gravity Records, and featuring the vocals of Donnoya Drake on the original A-side, and Junior Dell on the Slade classic “Merry Christmas Everybody.” I do love a reggae reworking – one of my favorite 7″s I own is a bootleg reggae release called Caribbean Cooke Vol. 2, where they reworked Sam Cooke tunes into reggae bangers. Can’t wait to hear this one too!

Bottom Line: A fantastic lineup – perhaps my favorite one yet? The digital singles come out on Nov. 20, and preorders will ship before the end of November. The OFFICIAL release date for the vinyl is December 11th… so you mixers who are aiming for an early December release are in luck, cause you’ll have those digi singles early!

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moi Caprice – Advent (2020)

Glorious Records
Buy: Qobuz (FLAC/MP3) | Apple Music | Discogs (CD/Vinyl)

This is a record that’s been bouncing around my playlists for a long time. Many years ago, I got into moi Caprice, a Danish band that was geographically and sonically close enough to my Swedish pop obsession to get swept up in the search. Their song “The Art of Kissing Properly” became a playlist staple. I picked up a few CDs and very much consider myself a fan. How I managed to miss them releasing a Christmas EP in 2020 is beyond me. I’m only half joking when I say I consider this oversight a personal failure.

Yes, moi Caprice released a Christmas EP, Advent, in late December of 2020, and it is absolutely excellent. Four tracks, each of which could make a strong case for being the best song on the record. “Christmas, the Magic Is Back” has a wonderful rolling rhythm, peppered with evocative lines like, “’cause the magic is back / and I can do the whole thing from a child’s view.”

That song, along with the one that follows, “Year of the Rat,” are very much Christmas 2020 songs—COVID Christmas songs. However, neither suffers from being too firmly locked into that moment. Both retain a timeless quality, especially in the coda of “Year of the Rat,” where they repeat, “And our kids fall asleep to the sound of our heart.” It’s just ridiculously gorgeous. (It is also featured on my 2025 Christmas mix, A Bit of Christmas.)

The biggest song on the record, at least by streaming metrics, is the third track, “I’m Dreaming of a Christmas That Isn’t So Extremely White.” The concept is interesting, as it references familiar seasonal cultural touchstones like Home Alone and It’s a Wonderful Life, while hoping for new perspectives. A good song, but it somehow lacks the emotional pull of the other three tracks. We’re all different; this may be your favorite!

The final song, “Merry Christmas,” closes out the EP with a promise to make a Christmas song that “truly has the sound / of a Merry Christmas,” and it absolutely delivers. The melody is gorgeous as it floats along on lead singer Michael Møller’s wonderful voice. This is the bullseye—a song that could land on just about anyone’s Christmas mix, in any year they decide to dip into moi Caprice. It is undeniably delightful.

For those who love physical media, you can still hunt this record down on either 12″ vinyl or CD. And wouldn’t you know it—shipping from Germany isn’t terrible these days. I’m glad I can finally write about this now, as I’d been nervous about covering something I hadn’t yet picked up myself, fearing it might sell out before I could. But now I’ve got a 12″ on the way, thanks to the generosity of you all, after coveting it for nearly a year. Truly, thank you all.

Bottom Line: This entire release can be mined for mixworthy songs. It really is pretty damn spectacular.

LISTEN

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Pinemoon “Christmas Together” (2022)

Pinhead Music
Buy: 7Digital (MP3/FLAC) | Apple Music | Amazon MP3

The swell of new releases is beginning… and here I find myself writing about a song from two years ago. I stumbled upon Copenhagen’s Pinemoon, and they just hit me right. 2022’s “Christmas Together” is a swooning, shoegazing trip that reset my mood last night. Searching for Christmas music is digging in the digital mines and more often than not, feeling hopeless and frustrated. Merry Christmas! So when you stumble upon something like “Christmas Together,” it calms your nerves and lets you fall asleep, ready to dig another day.

Bottom Line: This is a shoegaze Christmas classic.

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There is a piano version too!

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Nelson Can “On Christmas Night” (2017)

Nelson Can "On Christmas Night"

Alcopop! Records
Buy: 7Digital (FLAC/MP3) | Bandcamp

Copenhagen’s incredible, all-female indie rock trio, Nelson Can, snuck a ridiculously fantastic Scandinavian Christmas anthem onto Soundcloud today. How it snuck on, I have no clue. They have over 8,000 followers on Facebook, far more than most bands that make it onto these digital pages. Yet somehow, I’m listener 40-43. Go figure! I am honestly feeling way too lazy to do much more than say, “It’s fucking great.” I’ll leave most of the exposition to them, and perhaps add more in the morning. You shouldn’t expect high levels of professionalism from a blog who, during most days of the year, gets about 20-25 views in a world of BILLIONS.

“The song is about Christmas from a Scandinavian point of view. The further up north you go, the darker the days are during Christmas and the increasing hours of sunlight after Winter Solstice (December 21st or 22nd) still plays a very central role in the Christmas celebrations here. Hence the chorus “Solstice in sight! We don’t have to wait anymore. We will be bathed in light on Christmas night. We wanted to make a Christmas song that combined the Christmas we know from modern day western culture with the old hedonistic celebration of the return of the sun.”

Update: This song gets better with every listen. When I said “anthem,” I meant it. The song starts off simple, with this gentle rocking beat framing Selena’s voice, but hit that chorus and they go big! The hooks are huge – there is even the perfect amount of whistling… yeah, you heard me. Truly a stellar song with an interesting point-of-view (ANOTHER SOLSTICE MENTION TOO!) and most certainly worth multiple listens.

Bottom Line: Nelson Can scored a winner, pretty much hitting all fronts: Scandinavian + indie rock + original song + short + great production + wonderful voice + great chorus + fantastic finish = Weeeeee!

LISTEN

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Sweet Tempest “Snow” (2014)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

So, someday when Copenhagen’s Sweet Tempest officially put out their record… I will be the first in line to buy it. This is the kind of stuff that makes me love Christmas digging – when you find a band that you can love all year long. While I could talk about how much I love “Bones,” or “My Boulder,” the song in question here is “Snow.” I don’t know if I can sufficiently say how much I love this song. All I needed to hear is the intro to know I wanted it to be a centerpiece of my mix. That banjo (thats what it sounds like to me) as it meets the drums… damn. Just listen. I have high hopes for the next few months, as the band seem to look to winter for inspiration… and I could use another beautiful Sweet Tempest song for 2015’s mix.

Bottom Line: While not a Christmas song, it fits my guidelines with its winter imagery. And had it not fit, I would have rewritten my rules. No download… but they were extremely kind to me. 5/5

LISTEN

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Glow Kit “Christmas Daze” (2012)

Glow Kit - Christmas Daze

Self-Released / Mastermind Records
Buy: Bandcamp

Well hot damn. After reading about this track on Snowflakes’ blog, I knew I had to (legally) have it. Hailing from Aarhus, Denmark, Glow Kit recorded “Christmas Daze” back in 2012 and released it on Youtube, followed by a very limited (24 copies) lathé cut 7″ by Danish label Mastermind Records. Supposedly it was a free download on Soundcloud, but I could never get it to work. HOWEVER, after contacting the band, they have been kind enough to finally set up their Bandcamp page! So, now you can legally download a MP3 (or FLAC!) of this fantastic indie rock Christmas song. Please keep in mind, while they are offering it as a free download, they would greatly appreciate a donation. All the money made off this song will help with the ongoing recording of their new album. Musicians need money to make records, and if we want to continue to get fantastic music, we’ve got to support them.

Bottom Line: Really, I love this song. You should love it too. 5/5

LISTEN