Not everybody gathers around the tree OR gets merry on Turkey, Cranberries and Cava. For some, xmas is a time of reflection, loneliness, heartache. Don't you be, but think about those who are blue this xmas. Reach out to your fellow humans with humour, empathy and compassion. And these tunes.
A very close friend of mine once found himself quite alone one Christmas morning. He was in no crisis – his partner was on a long haul flight and he was in fact due to join us for xmas lunch later in the day. But still, waking up all alone on Christmas day was a new sensation. Anyone finding themselves alone on Christmas has but one advantage – they can take things dead slow. No excitable kids waking up early, no scramble around the tree tearing up paper etc. etc. And that’s exactly what he did. Slept late. Woke up bleary eyed and put the kettle on. Pottered around the apartment.
Eventually, he got around to opening a small, functional pile of presents that were gathered under his small apartment tree (this friend is a Jedi master of small space functional living, but that’s a story for another time). One by one, he unwrapped the items in the pile. A dressing gown, which he immediately put on for a short while. Next, he opened a shaving kit and various soaps and whatnot, which he duly took into the bathroom and used to shower & have a lovely shave. Feeling like new, he returned to the pile. Opened socks and underwear (a package undoubtedly from mum) and put them on. A set of drinking glasses – oh well, it’s Christmas Day and by now, approaching midday - may as well fix himself a drink, which he did. He opened a few books and since he was in no rush whatsoever, read a chapter or two. And so on and so forth. As the afternoon came, he had opened every item and, used every single one.
Over lunch he recounted this, which had us all in hysterics. I labelled it ‘A Very Functional Christmas’ and even wrote a short poem about it afterwards, since sadly lost. It may be a whimsical story now, but something stuck with this friend (You can call him Al) – the loneliness of that morning. And ever since, it’s had me thinking that the whole scenario was missing just one thing (apart from human company). It just could have done with the perfect soundtrack.
A morning like that would require some Christmas songs of a quite different kind to the usual fare…and so that, discerning listeners, is exactly what we have here. We set the chart Christmas classics squarely to one side. After all, not everybody gathers around the tree and gets merry on Turkey, Cranberries and Cava. For some, xmas is a time of reflection, loneliness, heartache…and these tunes.
A bit like Al’s pile of presents, each and every song here will provide you with a level of utility – albeit emotional utility. The highlights are too numerous to mention. They are each and every one, beautiful in their own way. Riding in on a very different kind of sleigh to Mariah or Slade (great as they may be), is Ron Sexsmith, wondering if maybe this year, “love will appear deeper than ever before” and that “forgiveness will ask us to call”. Simply a beautiful sentiment for any Christmas song and a fitting start.
Mind you, if sometime over the course of the following three and a half minutes you end up reaching for the tissues well I can’t blame you, we’re all human. The Staves’ Home Alone, Too is one of the saddest songs ever recorded, Christmas-time or any-damn-time.
We had to throw in a George Michael song too as his voice is synonymous with this time of year through Wham’s monster hit (itself a wonderful study in melancholy) Last Christmas. But here, we plump for one of his most underrated/overlooked pieces. From there one of my favourites of the year is Joseph’s terrific NYE with its beautiful harmonies, offbeat timing and rather wonderfully resigned chorus:
I don’t really feel a whole year older now
I’m still shaking but I’m bolder now
I need you to hold me even closer now
I know we’ll make it through another year
But I don’t know how
Me neither, sometimes. Just as well then, to buffer us through the whole silly season, songs like Nora Jones’ December exist for this year and every year. It’s funny as well, I found myself wondering the other day about Los Lobos (well, I was thinking specifically about how much I love David Hidalgo’s guitar playing) and when I popped them into a Spotify search guess what? Up popped another Christmas album! The only English language track (and the only original I think) is duly included here.
We follow with more blue – a terrifically moody cover of Lonely This Christmas by KT Tunstall, followed by a brand new track by Magne Furuholmen (perhaps better known to you as one-third of the legends Aha). Magne has made a whole album full of Christmas downers (what’s up Magne?) and we chose The Season To Be Melancholy just because of the title (but the track is a real grower!).
But I will have to stop at Kacey Musgraves & Aimee Mann, for the simple reason that they both do the holiday songs so very well. Both women were onto the holiday album scene before it became an obligation and so we recognise this with their very own taken on Christmas…a different kind of blue.
The last third of this playlist gets a little more mixed up, as if we’ve got through to dinner time only to find we’ve over indulged and lost the plot - in a good way. It has some actual Christmas psychedelia by Lucius, Amerigo Gazaway and Khruanbin – all highly unusual but effective editions to the Christmas canon. I included Prince’s whacked out Another Lonely Christmas, and a song from Robbie Williams’ brand new xmas collection called called simply Not Christmas. It reminds me of a song I wrote one year called Christmas Is Cancelled (it’s not as good as Robbie’s but it was almost as funny). Sometimes when family dynamics and xmas adverts in October kick-in way too soon, you can get to feel that way about it all.