Jingle Hell
December 12, 2021 2:31 PM Subscribe
"This is the true dark side of Christmas, the proper soundtrack to the lights that flash in call centres and the marriages that end in the kitchens of family gatherings." Tariq Goddard reviews this year's Christmas Music for The Quietus.
There is no there, there. I was hoping for something more from this, and what I got was a slightly depressed take on the same bullshit we hear every goddamn year and will until we end it (presumably too early) so that we need not ever hear this holiday pablum again. Does anybody know of any reviews of interesting Christmas music, or different takes on holiday music, or music for any of the other holidays that happen this time of year? I would be interested in that. This just wasn't enough for me. Sorry, I hate to be a downer right off the bat.
posted by evilDoug at 3:19 PM on December 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by evilDoug at 3:19 PM on December 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
There is good Christmas music, but it has feeling. What he is writing about comes from Hallmark, or a place very similar. Me, I have a really nice copy of parts of The Nutcracker (Royal Ballet; Ansermet) from vinyl and it is so damned pretty it makes me weep a little.
Lots of us intensely dislike the commercialized aspects of the holiday but we are usually drowned out by those who aren’t the least bothered (or who do it so hard they’ll hurt themselves, like the Fox News crew).
Me, I’m the one who used to post that story about the cement teddy bears on FB every year. So I appreciate someone else who notices the excess in whatever way it manifests itself.
posted by cybrcamper at 3:34 PM on December 12, 2021
Lots of us intensely dislike the commercialized aspects of the holiday but we are usually drowned out by those who aren’t the least bothered (or who do it so hard they’ll hurt themselves, like the Fox News crew).
Me, I’m the one who used to post that story about the cement teddy bears on FB every year. So I appreciate someone else who notices the excess in whatever way it manifests itself.
posted by cybrcamper at 3:34 PM on December 12, 2021
This year I’ve been really into the Duke Ellington nutcracker suite. I was really hoping TQ would point out some other stuff that was similarly subversive.
posted by The River Ivel at 4:12 PM on December 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by The River Ivel at 4:12 PM on December 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
Our college acapella group performed three songs at our yearly "Winter Celebration":
posted by BrashTech at 4:20 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
- Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics
- Fleet Foxes' Red Winter Hymnal
- Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees
posted by BrashTech at 4:20 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
Doing this sort of thing after "The Christmas Shoes" was released makes about as much sense as reviewing a town's architecture after it's been nuked. (Link goes to Patton Oswalt's take on it.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:22 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:22 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
My kid thoroughly enjoys the standard stable of holiday musical pabulum. I don't mind it... unless it's overplayed, which now, in my house, it is.
I actively enjoy snarky, self-aware holiday music, and particularly punk Christmas songs. Two favorites:
posted by gurple at 4:25 PM on December 12, 2021 [3 favorites]
I actively enjoy snarky, self-aware holiday music, and particularly punk Christmas songs. Two favorites:
- The Dropkick Murphys' The Season's Upon Us
- No Doubt's Oi to the World
posted by gurple at 4:25 PM on December 12, 2021 [3 favorites]
The only Xmas song I want to delete from reality is L***** D****** B**. I just ignore the rest.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:41 PM on December 12, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 4:41 PM on December 12, 2021 [6 favorites]
JustSayNoDawg: virgin mother finally gets her child to sleep, so young man decides she'd like to hear a drum solo....
posted by mightshould at 4:55 PM on December 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by mightshould at 4:55 PM on December 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
The best Christmas Song of all time, fight me if you disagree.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 4:58 PM on December 12, 2021 [14 favorites]
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 4:58 PM on December 12, 2021 [14 favorites]
> Does anybody know of any reviews of interesting Christmas music
In the review linked in the OP, Goddard named records by The Soul Santas and Cliff Beach as being actually good, and records by half a dozen other artists as having merit.
I mean, the article is mostly complaint, and the author comes right out of the gate to warn you of this -- as if that's necessary, since you should not expect any overview of a current year's crop of Christmas music to be anything else unless found in a publication that accepts favors from record companies and artists' managers. Christmas music is one of the few safe targets left for gratuitous insult without having to face countercomplaints from offended parties, and Goddard's plainly using this as an opportunity to sharpen his knives publicly. Not all the points stick but his brief on Gary Barlow's record is a thing to behold.
posted by ardgedee at 5:02 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
In the review linked in the OP, Goddard named records by The Soul Santas and Cliff Beach as being actually good, and records by half a dozen other artists as having merit.
I mean, the article is mostly complaint, and the author comes right out of the gate to warn you of this -- as if that's necessary, since you should not expect any overview of a current year's crop of Christmas music to be anything else unless found in a publication that accepts favors from record companies and artists' managers. Christmas music is one of the few safe targets left for gratuitous insult without having to face countercomplaints from offended parties, and Goddard's plainly using this as an opportunity to sharpen his knives publicly. Not all the points stick but his brief on Gary Barlow's record is a thing to behold.
posted by ardgedee at 5:02 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
It will still only be Black Walls' Gabriel’s Message (internet archive link) for my dronecore christmas.
posted by scruss at 5:36 PM on December 12, 2021
posted by scruss at 5:36 PM on December 12, 2021
At a time now lost in time, when John Gilbreath was DJ for an eclectic KBCS music show, he did a number of one shot annual Christmas music shows that were unbelievably fresh and interesting. I wouldn’t have said it was possible, especially multiple times.
posted by jamjam at 5:54 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by jamjam at 5:54 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
This year I've been hearing constant covers of Stevie Wonder's This Christmas. Never the original, just lots of cruddy covers. I had errands to run today and I heard it at least four times, probably more like six. I heard two different covers in the same store! I generally don't mind holiday music, but why this one freaking song over and over?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:08 PM on December 12, 2021
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:08 PM on December 12, 2021
Before streaming music was a thing and people went to a store to purchase their tunes, I worked at a chain record store and endured the whole Jingle Cats phenomenon.
The Christmas music that gets me through is a friend's carefully curated East Coast Christmas mix. We all have our seasonal anthems, and for many of us it's the Pogues, Fairytale of New York. For devotional pieces: "O Come Emmanuel". If you have any recordings of this you'd recommend, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:01 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
The Christmas music that gets me through is a friend's carefully curated East Coast Christmas mix. We all have our seasonal anthems, and for many of us it's the Pogues, Fairytale of New York. For devotional pieces: "O Come Emmanuel". If you have any recordings of this you'd recommend, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
posted by elkevelvet at 7:01 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
If you have any recordings of this you'd recommend, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
I really like Anne Dudley's arrangement Veni Emmanuel. It develops nicely and is more than just a revisiting of the piece.
posted by hippybear at 7:10 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
I really like Anne Dudley's arrangement Veni Emmanuel. It develops nicely and is more than just a revisiting of the piece.
posted by hippybear at 7:10 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
Not really NEW, but I added the Weepies' All That I Want to the regular rotation a decade ago and have had no complaints.
Also not new, but timely in its way: As a possibly cruel experiment to see who at the party has been barely holding it together for the last couple years. Wait for a lull and put on Dolly Parton's Hard Candy Christmas. See who unravels like a tightly wound spool of decorative ribbon and ruins their eye makeup quietly sobbing into a towel in the bathroom.
Or make it a group thing - therapeutic karaoke?
posted by bartleby at 8:00 PM on December 12, 2021 [3 favorites]
Also not new, but timely in its way: As a possibly cruel experiment to see who at the party has been barely holding it together for the last couple years. Wait for a lull and put on Dolly Parton's Hard Candy Christmas. See who unravels like a tightly wound spool of decorative ribbon and ruins their eye makeup quietly sobbing into a towel in the bathroom.
Or make it a group thing - therapeutic karaoke?
posted by bartleby at 8:00 PM on December 12, 2021 [3 favorites]
My favorite Christmas music is Christmas music in the same way Die Hard is a Christmas movie. The film Ronin is set on/around Christmas and has some great music. The film itself is also a great antidote for the relentless positivity some people assign to the season. The notional good guy wins, but did he really win or was it all just pointless? Who knows! Hope you can live with ambiguity!
posted by wierdo at 8:04 PM on December 12, 2021
posted by wierdo at 8:04 PM on December 12, 2021
Just for you weirdo, I recommend Brick by Ben Folds. It's just not Christmas until you're chain smoking in your car outside the abortion clinic!
posted by bartleby at 8:13 PM on December 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by bartleby at 8:13 PM on December 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
I mean, if you want weird christmas music, there's always The Superions's album Destination... Christmas! [Soundcloud link] The Superions being a side project of Fred Schneider from The B-52s.
posted by hippybear at 8:47 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:47 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
you want Mike Patton sining "The Christmas Song", join team John Zorn
posted by thelonius at 10:30 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by thelonius at 10:30 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
elkevelvet, here is a version of 'O Come Emmanuel' by Ginny Reilly of not terribly well known but deeply beloved in Seattle duo Reilly and Maloney which I find so moving I can barely stand to listen to it.
A version by Enya has been in my YouTube feed since Thanksgiving. I liked it well enough last year, but have not listened to it this year.
posted by jamjam at 10:53 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
A version by Enya has been in my YouTube feed since Thanksgiving. I liked it well enough last year, but have not listened to it this year.
posted by jamjam at 10:53 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
Fleet Foxes' Red Winter Hymnal
Okay, I gotta ask about this one because this is the second time this has shown up in a "Christmas music" discussion.
Why, though? If you listen to the lyrics, it's about a kid's head falling off and he bleeds out into the snow. The song itself is pretty enough, and maybe people just aren't noticing this, but...still why is this getting play as a Christmas song?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:59 AM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
Okay, I gotta ask about this one because this is the second time this has shown up in a "Christmas music" discussion.
Why, though? If you listen to the lyrics, it's about a kid's head falling off and he bleeds out into the snow. The song itself is pretty enough, and maybe people just aren't noticing this, but...still why is this getting play as a Christmas song?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:59 AM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you listen to the lyrics, it's about a kid's head falling off and he bleeds out into the snow.
Well, the Xmas season is the celebration of a thirteen year old runaway giving birth —to something not quite human— with only her teenage boyfriend to help—in a ramshackle barn—somewhere in the Middle East during the Bronze Age.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:41 AM on December 13, 2021 [3 favorites]
Well, the Xmas season is the celebration of a thirteen year old runaway giving birth —to something not quite human— with only her teenage boyfriend to help—in a ramshackle barn—somewhere in the Middle East during the Bronze Age.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:41 AM on December 13, 2021 [3 favorites]
Well into the Iron Age.
Also, be careful. No one has made the statement yet, but "O Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel" is not a Christmas song or any sort of carol. It’s an Advent hymn!
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:16 AM on December 13, 2021
Also, be careful. No one has made the statement yet, but "O Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel" is not a Christmas song or any sort of carol. It’s an Advent hymn!
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:16 AM on December 13, 2021
My Christmas mood for the year: Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Tinsel In The River
Pairs nicely with Okkervil River - Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas
posted by MrVisible at 5:45 AM on December 13, 2021
Pairs nicely with Okkervil River - Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas
posted by MrVisible at 5:45 AM on December 13, 2021
There have been a bunch of FPPs about overlooked Christmas (and Advent) songs, carols, hymns, etc over the years. I thought this one by Sara C. has a bunch of good suggestions, even if it was a little fighty....
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:09 AM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:09 AM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
This AskMe question from this year has some good stuff too.
posted by box at 6:13 AM on December 13, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by box at 6:13 AM on December 13, 2021 [3 favorites]
I've sometimes sincerely mistaken parts of Danse Macabre for Christmas music.
I don't know enough music theory to explain why, but it just feels like something that could go alongside "Ringing of the Bells" or something similar. I guess there's not much difference between skeletons gathering to dance and be merry and people gathering to dance and be merry?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:20 AM on December 13, 2021
I don't know enough music theory to explain why, but it just feels like something that could go alongside "Ringing of the Bells" or something similar. I guess there's not much difference between skeletons gathering to dance and be merry and people gathering to dance and be merry?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:20 AM on December 13, 2021
If you have any recordings of this you'd recommend, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
John Fahey -- O Come, O Come Emanuel
posted by y2karl at 6:50 AM on December 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
John Fahey -- O Come, O Come Emanuel
posted by y2karl at 6:50 AM on December 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
I'm sure he wasn't the first, but the earliest anti-carol I remember was from Tom Lehrer.
I also have a fond spot for PDQ Bach's "Throw the Yule Log, on Uncle John."
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:52 AM on December 13, 2021
I also have a fond spot for PDQ Bach's "Throw the Yule Log, on Uncle John."
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:52 AM on December 13, 2021
Well, the Xmas season is the celebration of a thirteen year old runaway giving birth —to something not quite human— with only her teenage boyfriend to help—in a ramshackle barn—somewhere in the Middle East during the Bronze Age.
Actually, most of the Christian hagiography teaches that St. Joseph was actually an older man as opposed to another teenager.
....And my hunch about why "White Winter Hymnal" is getting added to Christmas playlists is just because the title has the word "winter" in it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:07 AM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
Actually, most of the Christian hagiography teaches that St. Joseph was actually an older man as opposed to another teenager.
....And my hunch about why "White Winter Hymnal" is getting added to Christmas playlists is just because the title has the word "winter" in it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:07 AM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
"Pentatonix or PTX, are a Texan cappella band with “have a nice day” painted on smiles (which has me wondering what the true value of sincerity without free will is), and their fellow Texans The Butthole Surfers they are not."
I would be more alarmed if they were.
posted by delfin at 8:15 AM on December 13, 2021
I would be more alarmed if they were.
posted by delfin at 8:15 AM on December 13, 2021
While the Butthole Surfers, for some reason (makes drinky drinky gesture), took a stab at 'Good King Wenceslaus', I'd prefer to bring you Matthew Shipp's cover of Rahsaan Roland Kirk's adaptation, 'We Free Kings'.
posted by box at 8:43 AM on December 13, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by box at 8:43 AM on December 13, 2021 [3 favorites]
*shrug* I am really liking the new Pentatonix album "Evergreen": they did a cover of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" that's lovely.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:26 AM on December 13, 2021
posted by wenestvedt at 9:26 AM on December 13, 2021
I mean, don't get me wrong. If I somehow found myself at a Pentatonix show, and after five or six songs they all looked at each other and grinned, they removed their rubber masks as one, instruments appeared as if by magic, two naked dancers came out to join them and they dove straight into John E. Smoke, I would NOT COMPLAIN. But I do find it unlikely, and I would fear for the mental state of the rest of the audience.
As for alternative Christmas entertainment, I always fall back to Sarah Taylor and Bill Mumy's I've Got Some Presents For Santa, which is in a lighter vein, and the Showcase Showdown's Merry Christmas (I F----d Your Snowman), which is perhaps not as light.
posted by delfin at 9:29 AM on December 13, 2021
As for alternative Christmas entertainment, I always fall back to Sarah Taylor and Bill Mumy's I've Got Some Presents For Santa, which is in a lighter vein, and the Showcase Showdown's Merry Christmas (I F----d Your Snowman), which is perhaps not as light.
posted by delfin at 9:29 AM on December 13, 2021
If I had to pick one SNL thing, it would be "Sump'n Claus".
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:19 PM on December 13, 2021
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:19 PM on December 13, 2021
So bile and treacle. Enjoyed reading this, thank you for posting. I don't know most of those pieces, but he manages to put his finger on what is wrong with much of Christmas music in general. It's either threadbare redos begging the question why or gimmickry for the sake of novelty. I am though slowly building up my personal list of favorite carols old and new - thank you for the suggestions. I also get the outside looking in feeling about Christmas.
I will be in my corner listening to Boney M's original Christmas Album on repeat, FIGHT ME.
posted by blue shadows at 10:55 AM on December 15, 2021
I will be in my corner listening to Boney M's original Christmas Album on repeat, FIGHT ME.
posted by blue shadows at 10:55 AM on December 15, 2021
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posted by cybrcamper at 3:18 PM on December 12, 2021