24/24
Today’s choice is from my favourite seasonal album Tinsel & Lights by Tracey Thorn (2012). This captures everything I love about the season: it’s wistful and downbeat, but celebrates how we take comfort together in the darkest months of the year. It never fails to make me mist up a little.
From my home to yours, merry Xmas.
Joy by Tracey Thorn
[see pinned post for details of the full Xmas playlist]
23/24
Xmas wouldn’t be complete without the arrival of Sandy Claw….
Spence was a Bahamian guitar legend, but here, he sounds like a muppet sketch with a passing familiarity with the song. I’m here for it. I love the way he leaps into the choruses like a drowning man for a life ring, but he doesn’t know them either.
Joseph Spence - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
[see pinned post for details of the full Xmas playlist]
22/24
Another one of those songs that doesn’t directly mention Xmas, but is clearly set in the (damn) season. It’s also another one of those wistful ones about the life you might have led.
Forget the hype and the $$$ (haters gonna hate), this song is pure poetry and I love it.
“To leave the warmest bed I’ve ever known now”… 😢
Taylor Swift - ‘Tis the Damn Season
[see pinned post for details of the full Xmas playlist]
21/24
I’m always on the lookout for new, original seasonal albums and not just covers of the same standards. 2011 was a bumper year and “Funny Looking Angels” is a fantastic collection. This song in particular never fails to make me misty-eyed, with its mix of nostalgia, family and a bit of (sadly still relevant) politics.
Smith & Burrows - When the Thames Froze
[see pinned post for details of the full Xmas playlist]
20/24
I could have picked anything off this soundtrack. I love this film: Michael Caine is superb as Scrooge and the film is oddly close to the original Dickens, both in spirit & script. I do love the Marleys, though. No Xmas playlist is complete without some rattling chains and moaning.
Today’s song is “Marley and Marley” by the muppets. Ooooooh!
[see pinned post for details of the full Xmas playlist]
19/24
Another song that isn’t about Christmas directly, but does summon the spirit of the season in a snowy landscape. Plus, you surely can’t beat the drama conjured up by this singer. I’m not sure you’d make an album like this today celebrating Russian folk songs, but this is from 2003. Different times.
Today’s song is Heart on Snow by Marc Almond.
[see pinned post for details of the full Xmas playlist]
18/24
Today is another delicate, ethereal number. Just a voice and piano. Stark, simple and beautiful.
It’s a Randy Newman song, here covered by Harry Nilsson. Snow.
If you haven’t already worked out by now that the album “Tinsel and Lights” by Tracey Thorn is worth having, there’s a splendid cover of this on there too!
[see pinned post for details of the full Xmas playlist]
17/24
I’m not sure this is especially obscure, given that it’s by one of the most celebrated musical artists that we have, but this little melancholy beauty is a cracker.
Today’s song, direct from the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas soundtrack, is Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton
Hat tip too for the tremendous version by Tracey Thorn.
[see pinned post for details of the full Xmas playlist]
16/24
It’s long been clear to me that what Christmas music has really been missing is a wild contribution from the phenomenon that is Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
I said, YAY-AH!
Today’s advent selection is….
- High Gear by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
[see pinned post for details of the full Xmas playlist]
Both of these, btw, amply fill my personal musical criteria of being thoroughly miserable too!
swisslet