Here, heinous jingles are turned into Wagnerian operas ("Frosty the Snowman") or spaghetti western soundtracks ("Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer") via Spector's ever-glorious Wall of Sound, which piles on sleigh bells and echoes to infinity. As if one five-disc Christmas box set wasn't enough to prove his obsession with seasonal records, here Saint Sufjan is shown to be a hopeless slave to that "creepy Christmas feeling" once more. Fortunately, there is an array of renegades who have been attempting to reinvent the Christmas record as a vehicle for artistic expression. What would Christmas be without Christmas music? From innovative takes on traditional songs to recreating the versions that have been around for years, alt rock bands sure now how to make holiday music enjoyable. The Best Alternative Rock Christmas Albums Christmas Barenaked for the Holidays [A Christmas Album] Christmas with Weezer Elvis Christmas A Very She & Him Christmas This Is Christmas Special X-Mas Single Quality Street: a Seasonal Selection … Alternative rock has taken it’s ironic swipe over the Christmas music catalog with cover songs and deranged demented tracks take their own snow-shoveled path. Welsh rocker Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals fame knows that Christmas and depression go together hand in hand for so many. The Classic Christmas Album (Barbra Streisand album) The Complete Christmas Collection 1958–2010. Pinterest. Nat King Cole: The Magic of Christmas / The Christmas Song. Zac Pennington, leader of Smiths-obsessed Portland out-pop outfit Parenthetical Girls, has called his Christmas-record obsession the product of a perverse fascination with the "weird sense of warmth mixed with the crass commercial cash-in." AN ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS ALBUM contains a plethora of Alt-Rock artists performing both original and classic holiday-themed songs. The 42 tunes mix originals with traditionals and are reverent, ridiculous, whimsical, and achingly beautiful in varied measures. What are the best alternative Christmas songs? Not Another Christmas Album: An Alternative Christmas Not Another Christmas Album: Alternative Christmas (Artist) Format: Audio CD See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions 31 of the most underrated Christmas songs ever. This is the list of alternative rock Christmas albums. By. 33 Various Artists, 'A Christmas Record' This album, originally released by ZE Records in 1981, is a collection of experimental, alternative, and new-wave takes on … III," 2003's "Ding! Christmas songs: 60 amazing indie tunes for the Yuletide season. Everything else this year has been different, so why not Christmas? WhatsApp. Po-faced cuts from A Few Good Men and Toni Braxton kick off LaFace’s Christmas album, but... Christmas. Alternative Christmas songs: Listed in order of what's acceptable in polite company so, WARNING the further down you go the stronger the stomach you'll need. Fashion Culture Grooming Watches GQ Hype Lifestyle Men of the Year. "Rough Trade Christmas Bonus" was, as its title suggests, a five-track bonus disc affixed to his solo LP in Rough Trade shops, but it stands as one of the most moving Christmas albums committed (live) to tape. For example, in "Away in a Manger," Maria Taylor sweetly whispers the lullaby over an eerie audio-collage treatment inspired by Simon and Garfunkel's "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" or "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which is rendered as ironic slowcore dirge, loaded with the tragedy of time passing. And when the set closes with the sweet "See You Next Year," "This Is Christmas" feels like a Christmas special: You've had a few laughs along the way yet been touched, too. List of all alternative rock Christmas albums, ranked best to worst. Includes tracks from Snow Patrol, She & Him, Rufus Wainwright, Travis, Low, the Futureheads, Sufjan Stevens, Bright Eyes, Fall Out Boy, the Fall and many others. Some of the biggest bands and artists of the genre have released holiday songs that were much better than the traditional songs that flooded airwaves, allowing for the popularity of alt rock songs, which are among the most requested during the holiday season. Josh T. Pearson's acerbic, solemn songwriting and vivid, son-of-a-preacher backstory have made him a figure of mythical Americana in Europe. Christmastime! Suggested listen: “Come On! "Lady December" is more a Christmas single than a Christmas album, but it's undeniably awesome. No matter what style or type of Christmas song you enjoy, you're likely to find an album on this list that will fit whatever music you enjoy. ... Norah Jones’ alternative … the most; "All the King's Horns" is all cascades of piano and woodwinds, the tragicomic "That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!" What are the best Christmas alternative rock albums? Time Out’s Have Yourself an Alternative Christmas playlist tracks Christmas in Hollis – Run D.M.C. Instead of slinking into Scrooge-mode from exposure to the same Christmas carols over and over again, try adding some alternative songs to your … In a list put together in 2014, Christmas Portrait was one of the top 25 selling holiday albums in the SoundScan era even though it was released 13 albums before that era began in 1991. Here is my 25 choice cuts of alternative bands doing their own out-there spins on holiday music. Quality Street: a Seasonal Selection for the Whole Family, A Snowflake Fell (and It Felt Like a Kiss), Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes), carnegie mellon university notable alumni. All of which is leavened by plentiful seasonal puns ("Jingle my bells, it's Christmas time/I'll jingle yours if you jingle mine," "I can ding-dong merrily/around the stupid Christmas tree"), and frowny faces. But "A Christmas Gift to You, Zac Pennington" came out originally as a free-to-download gift for all, especially those with a fondness for left-field yuletides. Merry Christmas, folks. 14. Miles Davis: Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern) (1962) Released in 2000 and recorded while the Kentuckian combo was at work on their classic "At Dawn" LP, this "Fiasco" finds one of the band's best-ever jams, "Xmas Time Is Here Again": six minutes of glinting guitar harmonies, sleigh bells, and yearning vocal harmonies. Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!” Sufjan Stevens is in constant pursuit of loving In some ways, the tone is more of an Easter record, especially in the originals; "Long Way Around the Sea" is loaded with Son-of-God gravitas, and "If You Were Born Today" laments that a 21st-century Christ would most likely be slain while still a child. Facebook. The original soundtrack for … Somehow, amid 167 minutes, the clichés of the Xmas disc are almost entirely absent. Like the She and Him LP, it tilts a little more towards MOR, but there's such a sense of earnest sentimentality and cutting melancholy etched in every pleasant arrangement that "Tinsel and Lights" feels quietly subversive. The 30 Best Alternative Christmas Songs Luscious Jackson — "Let It Snow" Tuscadero — "Holidays R Hell" !!! From Joni Mitchell to Ramones: 20 best alternative Christmas songs ever The famed Christmas song is an elusive figure in music. The songs are a mixture of oldies and oddballs of the lesser-known variety, and the performances seem genuinely filled with the holiday spirit. Zac Pennington—leader of Christmas-obsessed Portland orchestral-pop types Parenthetical Girls—so loved Christmas that, here, his pal Sam Mickens makes him a Christmas record. Share this article via facebook Share this article via … Best Christmas songs you're not already sick of: Get in the festive spirit with the GQ guide to alternative Christmas songs. The Complete James Brown Christmas. Connor Ratliff Here, that most standard of Christmas standards is turned into a seven-minute epic, beginning as a heartbroken, hesitant piano ballad before spilling out into a choral conclusion sung by the 30-member congregation. Highlights include a take on the Sacred Harp death hymnal "Idumea," a tender ode to children scared/scarred by family conflict ("Carol of St. Benjamin the Bearded One"), a lo-fi, eight-bit-esque cover of Prince's "Alphabet St.," and "Christmas Unicorn," a 12-minute psychedelic, "Age of Adz"–styled freakout that transforms halfway through into a riff on Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart.". — "And Anyway It's Christmas" No Doubt — "Oi to the World" Sparks — " Thank God It's Not Christmas " Enuff Z'Nuff — "Happy Holiday" Cheap Trick — "I Want You for Christmas" Squeeze … There’s nothing complicated about the brilliance of Nat... 2. In "This Is Christmas," sad songsmith Emmy the Great and her boyfriend Tim Wheeler—former frontman of Ash—combined for a snarky seasonal satire. Facebook. They’re open 24/7, you know. Ranking the all-time greatest and hottest new Christmas songs and albums for your yuletide singalongs and party playlists. Yet, there was a sense of subversion at the time, a sacrilege in running a hallowed holiday through the newfound youth-culture fad of rock 'n' roll. It's not super-Christmasy, either, which is always a bonus. Even if his band's obscure, self-released records—all oddball originals, not tired traditionals—were anything but cash-ins, Parenthetical Girls' unlikely annual EPs find them getting genuinely swept up in the season. Happy to shift keys and change up tempos, she sets "Winter Wonderland" to a lazy shuffle of overlapping piano chords and brushed drums, and "O Come O Emmanuel" becomes an '80s synth-pop power ballad. More than two hours long, "Songs for Christmas" has surely soundtracked countless Christmas dinners already. Christmas songs are an inexhaustible music resource, especially this time of year. The 20 Best Christmas Albums of All Time 1. Take a look at other lists like Rap Christmas albums and R&B Christmas Albums. Copied to clipboard. Alternative Christmas songs for this most alternative of festive periods. OK, OK, OK: This isn't very alt. 15 alternative Christmas songs for your December playlist. Low. But it still functions as a Christmas record, chiefly because there's an earnest love in the arrangements: all epic string swells, chiming sleigh bells and crooning vox. Spending Christmas at the Waffle House sounds like fun. On her free via Bandcamp Christmas album, "Silent Night," Tennessean harpist-songwriter Timbre Cierpke dares to make a seasonal set of unvarnished sincerity and unadorned beauty, combatting the tradition toward tacky and ersatz with each achingly artful arrangement. Advertisement. AN ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS ALBUM contains a plethora of Alt-Rock artists performing both original and classic holiday-themed songs. There are some albums that feature the traditional, standard songs, or reinterpreted songs. Bands like Weezer, My Morning Jacket and Jimmy Eat World released music that captured the holiday spirit. Not to be outdone, The Dandy Warhols, She & Him, The Reverend Horton Heat and let's not forget The Killers also released Christmas albums. Former Marine Girl and Everything But the Girl vocalist Tracey Thorn fulfilled a lifelong goal when she made her 2012 Christmas album "Tinsel and Lights." "It was 1987/and you'd just been diagnosed with manic depression," Rhys laments over the mournful piano in "Slashed Wrists This Christmas," which counters its comedy with tender, tearful delivery. Seemingly so synonymous with The Chipmunks that it's beyond rescue, Thomas treats it as a mighty, swelling, rousing piano basher, its six sing-along minutes cresting at "Transatlanticism"-esque levels of anthemicism. Mele Kalikimaka – Jimmy Buffet; Under The Mistletoe – Kelly Clarkson, Brett Eldredge, Atlantic Holiday; Can’t Fight This Feeling – Bastille, London Contemporary Orchestra; Merry Christmas, Baby – CeeLo Green, Rod Stewart, Trombone Shorty But most of them are, let’s face it, schmaltzy and overplayed. The Concretes issued the EP in 2004, right at the peak of their powers, coming in the wake of their awe-inspiring self-titled debut LP (one of the very best albums of the decade, no less). "Alternative" takes on the Christmas record don't have to be avant-garde, oddball, or sarcastic readings. Gathered together as a single "Christmas" volume, these bizarre labors of love—defined by the couplet "thank god it's not Christmas/when there's just you to do"—stand as nothing less than a towering achievement, Pennington making rich, artistic cake from just so much seasonal treacle. After kicking off with Phil Spector sleigh bells and optigan on "Just Like Christmas," Low play "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night," and "Blue Christmas" as hypnotic, minimal, glacial studies in seasonal sadness. Find the latest in alternative christmas music at Last.fm. John Thomason - December 16, 2020. By Anna Lewis. Today’s alternative and indie rock Christmas playlist mix includes songs from artists such as Bright Eyes, The Weepies, Vince Guaraldi, Green Day, Manic Street Preachers, Thick Pigeon, Monster Bobby, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Rilo Kiley and dozens of others. Featured Coldplay, Ben Folds, Jimmy Eat World, Bright Eyes. Here is my 25 choice cuts of alternative bands doing their own out-there spins on holiday music. When it was released in 1999, this "Christmas" disc from slowcore pioneers Low seemed revolutionary. For those who want to imagine that 30 Swedish women are caroling on their doorstep, it's hard to beat The Sweptaways' glorious take on The Concretes' "Lady December.". Neil Finegan, Chester. This pair of EPs finds a pair of collaborations—which, with much overlap, appear on both discs—with crooner Magnus Carlsson, and there's even big piano chords, drums, and handclaps added to the normally vocal-only mix. His work appears in Rolling Stone Magazine. founders Michael and Ridgeley—the "Christmas Special" album is a suite of songs about being a brokenhearted, pure-at-heart boy ("I still believe in Santa Claus, even if no one else does," Jof Owen whimpers) during that most sentimental of seasons. List is alphabetical but you can sort by any column. An Alternative Christmas features 34 tracks across 2CDs, showcasing a different side to Christmas – none of your Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby or Shakin’ Stevens here. 12 best alternative Christmas songs to test your speakers Andrew Murphy 12/15/2020 LAPD vows 'immediate' arrests for vaccine protesters at Dodger Stadium; National Park Service to require masks. It teeters on the brink of being a novelty album of novelty songs, but, really, that just makes it even more of a Christmas record. But put on the six-song, 34-minute set, and all such irony and/or pessimism is washed away by the waves of Jim James's glorious voice. Best alternative Christmas songs, from Bob Dylan to The Kinks. As if in thrall to delusions of Xmas togetherness, Bright Eyes' "A Christmas Album" is, unlike the band's regular LPs, not some work of ego for frontman Conor Oberst but a gathering of the Bright Eyes "family." Browse through the list of 2019's new Christmas albums, featuring artists like Lea Michele, Idina Menzel, and Mariah Carey. The best Christmas albums of 2019 offer a mix of updated classics and heart-warming hearthside singalongs to make for a wonderful holiday season. Pandemic Playlist V: Alternative Christmas Songs. Thorn shows herself a fan of alt reads on Christmas, steering well wide of persistent standards as she covers Low, Sufjan Stevens, and the White Stripes and recruits Magnetic Fields leader Stephin Merritt to pen an original. 50 New Christmas Albums, Reviewed More than 600 holiday songs came out in 2018: Here’s a guide to the good covers, the bad art and the utterly unlistenable. If communal caroling is synonymous with Christmas for you, The Sweptaways shall surely put a giddy seasonal smile on your dial. On her free via Bandcamp Christmas album, "Silent Night," Tennessean harpist-songwriter Timbre Cierpke dares to make a seasonal set of unvarnished sincerity and unadorned beauty, combatting the tradition toward tacky and ersatz with each achingly artful arrangement. Karen Haynes - 21 December 2020. Because, as much as you'd like to, you can't just listen to 'All I Want For Christmas' on repeat. From Joni Mitchell to Ramones: 20 best alternative Christmas songs ever The famed Christmas song is an elusive figure in music. Cool Christmas Songs: 20 Tracks For An Alternative Yule Weezer – We Wish You A Merry Christmas (2008). Not Another Christmas Album: An Alternative Christmas Not Another Christmas Album: Alternative Christmas (Artist) Format: Audio CD See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions And, true, there's no irony in Phil Spector's legendary (and much-copied) 1963 Christmas classic. Christmas songs are great and all, but don't you ever get tired of the classics? Top 10 Rock/Alternative Christmas Songs That Don't Suck. The albums and songs featured on this list are some of the most well known and popular titles of that genre, and likely introduced an entirely new audience to holiday and Christmas music. According to AllMusic.com, this is the second album the legendary chain has … But what truly earns "A Christmas Gift for You" its perennial cred is just how good it is. That supermarket-friendly veneer masks the smart-ass words, where "Sleigh Me" is an explicit euphemism for sex and "(Don't Call Me) Mrs. Christmas" is a scorned-woman ballad sung by Mrs. Claus. Anthony Carew is a music journalist and host of "The International Pop Underground" radio show. Thomas, a devoted Christian whose faith influences her regular singer-songwriter gig, tackles the standards of the season with no shortage of inspiration, and the results are unbelievable. It's hard to deny that a disc boasting a pounding Euro-disc cut called "No Cure for the Common Christmas," sets "A Glimpse of Stocking" apart from the Christmas record ranks. If you were to go by the artwork—which shows the band in bad haircuts and secondhand suits, posed cheesily—and self-mocking title, you'd guess that this Christmas record from My Morning Jacket was but a big joke. One more Carpenters Christmas album was released in 1984 after the death of Karen Carpenter. Top 10 Alternative Christmas Songs by Matthew Mansell December 24, 2020, 12:00 am If you crave new music, December can be a trial as new releases pretty much cease. Here, "Angels We Have Heard on High" is a six-minute, fingerpicking epic in which Pearson's honeyed, cracked country croon makes every syllable into a sob. The sparseness of his discography has fed the myth: Pearson released only one (double) album with his Lift to Experience, 2001's "The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads," then disappeared for a decade, returning with a stark, soul-baring solo debut, "The Last of the Country Gentlemen," in 2011. Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!” Sufjan Stevens is in constant pursuit of loving Christmas more than the baby Jesus. Rock Subculture’s Top 101 List of Alternative Christmas Songs (The Best Rock, Pop, Indie, Punk, R&B, New Wave, Modern Rock from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and Beyond) December 1, 2013 by Jason DeBord 6 Comments 6–10', The Sweptaways: 'A Christmas Party' and 'Cry Cry Christmas', Various: 'A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records', Recommended R&B and Soul Christmas Albums. Browse the top alternative christmas albums to find new music and discover artists. Find alternative christmas tracks, artists, and albums. These are some of the most popular Christmas songs of all time and some of the greatest jingles in the history of music. If you ever found yourself wishing you could find that perfect Xmas record that was a little less Céline Dion, a little more Animal Collective, here your dreams come true. Instead of slinking into Scrooge-mode from exposure to the same Christmas carols over and over again, try adding some alternative songs to your … Alternative Christmas songs: Listed in order of what's acceptable in polite company so, WARNING the further down you go the stronger the stomach you'll need. The Smashing Pumpkins – Christmastime (1997). The set reflects the earnestness Thorn feels for the project, beginning with "Joy," an original whose feelings on the season are loaded with middle-aged melancholy ("you loved it as a kid/now you need it more than you ever did"). In 2010, Banjo or Freakout—a London-based Italian named Alessio Natalizia—turned out a free Christmas record that instantly became the most interesting and experimental seasonal set ever assembled. The LP finds Saint Etienne flipping from groovy '60s pop to sad ballads, slyly avant-garde pieces, and pounding acid-house anthems. "A Glimpse of Stocking" is largely tongue-in-cheek: "Come on Christmas" pipes in a cheering crowd and a pipe organ for a sporting-event feel, "Unwrap Me" finds Sarah Cracknell winkingly evoking Marilyn Monroe over bells and gongs, and "Gonna Have a Party" ladles on the Autotune like so much gravy. It's a stark musical tonic for those who hate the "light entertainment" of the season. sound like wails from on the edge of sanity. Christmas with Boney M. (2007 album) Christmas with Elvis and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Though it boasts gallows humor in its delivery, Rhys' EP "Atheist Christmas" sounds plenty depressed itself. 12/25/2014. Twitter. Dong!" By using LiveAbout, you accept our, The Boy Least Likely To: 'Christmas Special', Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler: 'This Is Christmas', Josh T. Pearson: 'Rough Trade Christmas Bonus', My Morning Jacket: 'Does Xmas Fiasco Style', Sam Mickens: 'A Christmas Gift to You, Zac Pennington', She and Him: 'A Very She and Him Christmas', Sufjan Stevens: 'Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Vols. Jacob Stolworthy @Jacob_Stol. As a result, although not every track is a winner, there are moments of genuine frosty frisson. Rosie Thomas's Xmas LP succeeds, admirably, due to the unfailing earnestness of the endeavor. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/72778/15-bizarre-holiday-albums Oct 21, 2020 Bah humbug! And "Silver & Gold" makes "Songs for Christmas" feel like a minor prologue; Sufjan's second yuletide box presents the world with 58 songs and almost three hours of all-new music. 14th December 2018. Blink-182, The Ramones, Dickies, My Chemical Romance and Rise Against are here to bring some fist-pumping cheer. Sometimes all at once. Here, the suicidal Dead Science leader (and one-time Xiu Xiu member) makes a suite of stripped-down, spartan takes on traditional songs, in which he stretches out syllables with torturous tremors, his wavering vibrato making lines such as "Fall on your knees! For many, alt rock Christmas albums capture the essence of the holiday spirit, even if the music isn't quite what you'd expect to hear around holiday time. By Larry Bartleet. "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" are made resplendent with stark harp patterns and gentle daubs of piano and tuned percussion, but it's nothing compared to the title track. Yet "Jesus the Reindeer," in all its zany blasphemy and loaded cultural commentary, doesn't, weirdly, seem any more idiotic than "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" itself. 12 alternative Christmas albums A LaFace Family Christmas. Almost entirely originals—including a semi-inspired novelty number, "George and Andrew," which imagines a sweet seasonal reunion between estranged Wham! Alternative rock has taken it’s ironic swipe over the Christmas music catalog with cover songs and deranged demented tracks take their own snow-shoveled path. By. A 30-strong, all-lady, a cappella vocal co-op from Stockholm, the band members normally reinterpret Swedish indie-pop and '80s hits as chaotic torrents of harmonized voice, but, for Christmas purposes, they work in a more collaborative format. Tuesday 22 … On their first two LPs, "Volume One" and "Volume Two," Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward—aka She and Him—showed themselves as students of Phil Spector, unafraid of wearing their sentimental hearts on their sleeves. By Chris Payne. So a Christmas record seemed like a natural fit, with all the Wall of Sound, sleigh bell–jangling, string-swelling grandeur as the likely outcome. Oh, hear the angel voices!" "Alternative" takes on the Christmas record don't have to be avant-garde, oddball, or sarcastic readings. Far too many Christmas albums are cynical efforts by artists recycling the same old songs to bolster their catalog sales. For many people, the yearly rotation of Christmas songs played everywhere in the month of December can get pretty repetitive. In fact, you could make a case this is the ultimate Christmas album. The Boy Least Likely To are an English duo lingering at the twee-est end of twee, so it may come as no surprise that their "Christmas Special" is all tinkly glockenspiels. sounds like a tender refugee from "Seven Swans," and the gentle, playful reading of French fable "The Friendly Beasts" is ridiculously charming. WhatsApp. Scrobble songs to get recommendations on tracks you might like. Yet "A Very She and Him Christmas" is often stripped-down, with Deschanel and Ward setting their voices to spare arrangements. Also, most “alternative” Christmas songs are negative and this is positive, but firmly tongue-in-cheek. Natalie Xenos Sunday 18 Dec 2016 12:30 pm. It’s a classic for a reason. For listeners who love Christmas music but need more than an album's worth of songs to make it through the month or for listeners who want something a little more creative, there's something for everyone to enjoy here. Mickens' drunken delivery contrasts with the sober setting, his voice matched to solitary scratchy guitars, wonky synths, or (on an abstract, a cappella take on "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas") pure silence. At the time, no one of any credibility was attempting to create Xmas records of genuine substance, which made hearing the trio's artful interpretation of seasonal sounds a jaw-dropping experience.