Tag: UK

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Neil Brogan – 10 Christmas Songs (2026)

Brogan Records
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

Neil Brogan (ex-Sea Pinks frontman) has methodically created an absolute classic of a Christmas record, releasing a new holiday single every season since those dark COVID days of 2020. Many of these songs, such as “Christmas (with a small c,)” have made it onto my yearly mix and become part of my life. Neil has gathered all these wonderful songs, added a few new ones and an alternate version, and presents us with 10 Christmas Songs. More bands should take this approach: Write a song a year and make sure it is amazing. This is a far better approach than writing one or two songs, then padding the record with uninspired covers. Neil has shown you the way. Go out and make some music.

Bottom Line: This, my dear friends, is a top-tier alternative Christmas record.

LISTEN

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Snowed In (A Merge Records Holiday Album) (2026)

A snowy path surrounded by snow covered trees on each side.

Merge Records
Buy: Merge | Bandcamp

Merge Claus strikes again! They’ve been generous with us in the past, releasing one of the strongest compilations of recent memory, You Wish, back in 2019. They’re back and have already blessed us with that amazing Superchunk EP, and now a full compilation LP, Snowed In.

There is a little for everyone here – originals, covers, and classics sprinkled throughout the album. Snowed In succeeds where others often fail, serving each category beautifully and crafting a great listen from start to finish. This album is all killer, no filler.

I can’t decide whether writing a great new Christmas song is easier or harder than performing a classic that brings the baggage of years and many, many versions. I suspect the latter may indeed be tougher, so I do appreciate when someone can keep me engaged. The lead track, Charlotte Cornfield’s version of “Jingle Bells,” has enough warmth in its shuffle to make me smile, and sets a lovely tone to begin the album. Great start.

The originals are always the most exciting, and there are some stellar new additions on this record. Case Oats jumped out immediately with the propulsive “Peace on Earth,” and those (trombone?) flourishes are unexpected and truly fantastic.

Mike Krol adds another new Christmas song to pair with his stellar 2019 track, “Won’t Be Alone Tonight,” and oh boy, “How Could It Be Christmas?” does not disappoint. These two songs could be paired as one of the most indispensable indie rock Christmas 7-inch singles of all time.

There are more great original songs on here – another version of Superchunk’s fantastic “Shortest Day of the Year,” as well as a new Christmas song by The New Pornographers. If I am not mistaken, the first Christmas song by The New Pornographers since their 2007 The Spirit of Giving EP. Welsh indie rock band The Tubs also rock out with their “I Am an Elf,” giving us all the closest thing we’ll ever get to a Joanna Gruesome Christmas song (2012’s “Holiday Armadillo” doesn’t count).

There are some inspired covers here as well, such as Telekinesis’ “Christmas in Suburbia,” originally by indie legends The Cleaners from Venus. My hot take? This is better than the original, and better than any version I’ve ever heard. Come at me, Martin Newell-heads!

There is much more to be had on this record, with more great covers and classics all worth your time. I’m really enjoying this record, and could see 2-3 songs being on this year’s mix. This is a must-buy, so go buy it already! You have no choice! The spirit of alternative Christmas compells you!

Bottom Line: An indie rock holiday compilation that is enjoyable all the way through? Unheard of! Or is it… ? Go buy this record!

Edit: I had this post all ready to add single tracks where appropriate, and they turned off the preview. I’m sure all the songs will be there Friday… but for now, you’ll have to be enticed by my terrible descriptions!

LISTEN

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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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Home Counties “Better Last Year (Home Counties for Christmas)” (2025)

a group of people sitting at what appears to be a table at a pub, wearing santa hats and throwing their arms around each others' shoulders.

Submarine Cat Records
Buy: Juno Download (WAV/FLAC/AIFF/MP3) | Apple Music | Amazon.uk MP3

Well. Of course, I’m not the first to post about this, but at the very least I didn’t learn about this song from NME, and found it the old-fashioned way – I follow Home Counties on Soundcloud! But I’ll at the very least benefit from the background on the song provided. Turns out “Better Last Year (Home Counties for Christmas)” debuted at their gig at Scala last night, and is slowly becoming available on digital platforms today. Hopefully it’ll find its way to Bandcamp… we’ll see.

Enough about how and where to find the song – what is this song about?? Well, I again refer to that darn NME article, as they obviously got a ton of background, and I’m not going to be better about explaining this song than the band will. Quote below:

“Inspired by the dual voices and anti-Christmas sentiments of ‘Fairytale’, the song is split between two narratives voiced by Will [Harrison] and Lois [Kelly],” the band said. “Lois sings about bumping into people you went to school with who have since done terrible things (a common theme from our school). Will sings specifically about Christmas Eve itself, with a feeling that with every year it gets a bit shitter, and everyone a bit less joyous.”

“Together, they shape a story of growing older and how you feel it at this time of year,” they added. “It’s also a plea for everyone to try and regain some of their lost ‘Christmas spirit’, in a slightly problematic boozy call to arms.”

Well, I barely actually wrote anything about a song I actually quite like. I wonder what I would have said had I not found that NME article that kinda ruined my momentum…

Bottom Line: This is certainly going to make some mixes… maybe even mine!

LISTEN

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Roberta Fidora “Christmas Trees” (2025)

Ursinewave
Buy: Bandcamp

This is it. This is the week. This is the week I try to find everything I can, make a good stab at a playlist, and pray for Friday’s releases to screw the mix tracklist all up (and make it great)! Thankfully, we’ve gotten some great releases overnight, with Roberta Fidora‘s “Christmas Trees” most certainly among those notable songs. Synths and sounds jumping out at you at every turn, this anti-Christmas jam that is sure to add some pace to your mix, and perhaps mine too!

Of note, should you not be familiar, Roberta also has some additional Christmas covers on her Bandcamp page under the moniker Curxes. Of particular note is the excellent electronic cover of Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas.”

Bottom Line: Roberta delivers an avant-pop delight, and right on time.

LISTEN

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Everyone Says Hi “Walking in the Air” (2024)

Chrysalis Records
Buy: 7Digital (MP3) | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3

I like to think of the Christmas season as having one big side conversation with my friends over at Christmas A Gogo. Whether it is via e-mail, Bluesky, or most often directly via our websites, I know that I’m always curious what they are thinking, and I’d like to think they might be of me. I’ve been planning to post this song for a little while, but as Christmas A Gogo just posted a massive post all about “Walking in the Air,” it felt appropriate to raise my hand and go “Me tooooooooo.”

Everyone Says Hi is a British indie (in the general sense of the term, some of these bands are pretty big) supergroup created by frontman and ex-Kaiser Chiefs drummer Nick Hodgson, Pete Denton (The Kooks), Ben Gordon (The Dead 60s), Glenn Moule (Howling Bells) and Tom Dawson. Last year, they dropped an excellent, funky version that truly adds something to the conversation. I’m used to so many airy, ethereal versions of this song, having a version of “Walking in the Air” that makes you bob your head? That is pretty crazy, and it is equally crazy how well this works.

Bottom Line: This is a mixworthy change-of-pace to a modern classic.

LISTEN

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Skinny Living “Smoke (Christmas Version)” (2024)

A christmas scene with three young boys wearing santa hats in front of a tree.

Townsend Music Limited/Skinny Living
Buy: 7Digital (FLAC/MP3) | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3

Wakefield, England’s Skinny Living are doing something here that many bands have done before: taking one of their own songs, “Smoke,” tweaking it, and turning it into a Christmas track — much like Wheatus did with “Christmas Dirtbag” back in 2023. However, Skinny Living has the benefit of not having absolutely everyone know the original song by heart before hearing the new version… so this one hits differently.

Everything shifts beautifully into feeling like “Smoke” is a Christmas song — the gratefulness, the love, the fighting, the dancing — all packed into “tonight,” which can easily be assumed to be Christmas Eve. And, if you want to get real technical, they haven’t even released the original “Smoke” as a studio single; it only exists as a live cut.

So I hereby plant the Christmas flag in this song. “Smoke” is now a Christmas song, Skinny Living. No backsies.

Bottom Line: Is this a reworked song? Or was it allllways a Christmas song? Always!

LISTEN

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Patience “Fire Baby” (2017)

Intro screen, black screen with Patience written across it in handwritten font.

The Glasgow School of Art
Buy: Video (free!) | Soundcloud (stream)

I do love some synth pop Christmas music. I also love the band Veronica Falls (I miss them!). Smash those two loves together, and you get Patience’s “Fire Baby,” the soundtrack to The Glasgow School of Art’s 2017 holiday video. Patience (aka Roxanne Clifford from Veronica Falls – duh!) does not appear to have released this song in any other fashion than as this music video (Edit – also on Soundcloud). Thankfully, the video is downloadable, and you could strip out the music rather easily should you be so inclined. Give it a listen!

Bottom Line: Some Christmas synths to warm your ears to.

LISTEN/WATCH

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Pentire “Good Luck It’s Christmas” (2024)

Self Released
Buy: Stream on Soundcloud

Pentire are a bunch of guys from a small town (Herefordshire, England) who “make pop songs for the post-jangle generation through the smiles and sweat of the mosh pit.” A fun turn of phrase indeed, which makes my next sentence sound bland as hell. Here’s a nice slice of indie pop/rock that, inexplicably, I can only find on Soundcloud. Enjoy my nearly flavorless introduction and press play. You’re likely to enjoy this one.

EDIT: Well I’ll be… it is a cover and I hadn’t realized it. This is a cover of Tellison, which can be found on their Bandcamp. And… I did have that song already and just plum forgot. Thanks Randy!

I swear I’ll get my Christmas music mojo flowing soon.

Bottom Line: Pentire are indeed Christmas music fans – keep an eye on them. They are who I discovered Devon from…

LISTEN

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Devon “Staying Home…” (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

It’s quickly coming up on November — that time when we all start to expect new songs to drop. There have been a few here and there, sneaking onto records (like the excellent Sister Ray track), but these October days are often full of old songs newly discovered. So, let’s flash back to 2021 — which feels like both yesterday and forever ago.

Devon hails from Gloucestershire, England, and back in 2021 he dropped a very COVID-era Christmas single, “Staying Home…” While you can certainly feel those days coming through in this song, the roots haven’t quite anchored it in time, never to leave. This is a song about mental health, compassion, and all those feelings of love and loss that get mixed up and spun around at Christmas.

This isn’t just a COVID Christmas song. Multiple listens, folks — it’s a grower.

Bottom Line: It’s sad, happy, thoughtful, loving, quiet, loud… and worth your time.

LISTEN