Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)
Amongst indiepop Christmas music aficionados, The Happy Somethings are quite well known for their underground classic “It’s Christmas Time (we’re as miserable as hell).” They’ve reworked the song into various treatments and versions over the past few years, but something unexpected and dramatic has happened, and they’ve stumbled into an entire holiday record! I love the description they’ve posted on their Bandcamp:
DISCLAIMER!
We should perhaps apologise for releasing a Christmas album – it seems a pretty ‘uncool’ thing to do. But then we pride ourselves on being a pretty uncool band!
And in our tinseled defence, we didn’t really mean to write another festive song but ‘Nothing’s Just For Christmas’ thrust itself upon us in an unignorable fashion.
So we thought, why not put it with eleven other songs that could reasonably be heard as ‘seasonably appropriate’ and make an album?
So we did!
Some of these tracks weren’t originally written as Christmas songs at all but have been repurposed for this release as they seemed apt – and a couple have been ‘re-formed’ into instrumentals.
Hopefully we offer you and yours an alternative festive musical backdrop – if only for around 30 minutes!
And of course, it’s free – or for just 50p you could even gift it…
I totally get the whole “uncool” thing. I mean… I write a blog about Christmas music. It isn’t the first thing I tell folks when I meet them for the first time. You have to wait at least 15 minutes before dropping that bomb!
The whole record is quite nice – very much reminiscent of the wonderful Boy Least Likely to Christmas record. As you see in their description, not all these songs are explicitly Christmas but when viewed within the context of a holiday record, they totally work. There are some great lyrics here too. I certainly had a chuckle with this line from “Nothings Just for Christmas:” “Don’t want to hear the dang dong ding. / Don’t need a message from the King. / Not really into worshipping / except for Frank and Bing.” Another wonderful line I just adore is the first bit of “The Present,” which was originally released on their excellent 2023 full-length, A Gathering of Sorts: “the present is an excellent way / for someone to say /for someone to show / how little they know about you.” Ha! So clever… again, has me feeling some really great Boy Least Likely To vibes… so highly recommended.
Bottom Line: This record might be a bit cobbled together, but I enjoy a well-made cobbler. This would be a nice opportunity to throw them a buck or two to help them celebrate the holidays too, especially if you are a member of the indiepop Christmas music-loving community.
Christmas Underground 