Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop 25 Christmas Songs of the Last 25 Years: #19 - Outkast, “Player’s Ball”

It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #19, and the best (and possibly only) use of sleigh bells in an Outkast song.

#19: Outkast, "Player's Ball" (1993)

Outkast may be the only hip-hop act in the history of the genre to debut with a Christmas song. On November 19, 1993, the now-legendary Atlanta duo released "Player's Ball," their debut single and ode to the annual gathering of pimps that later appeared on 1994's Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. However, a version of the song actually debuted ten days earlier, on November 9, as part of A LaFace Family Christmas.

Powered by sleigh bells (and setting the date of the ball back from November to December), the song finds Big Boi and Andre 3000 taking stock of another year on the hustle while getting blitzed on eggnog. They also take time to throw in lyrical callbacks to famous Christmas songs along the way, the most obvious of which would get edited out of the (much more popular) album and radio versions. Even with the alterations, the song retains the soul-searching mood that everyone settles into around the holidays without sacrificing its all-season durability. It's almost impossible to write a Christmas song that sounds as good in July as it does in December, but Outkast did it.

Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop 25 Christmas Songs of the Last 25 Years: #20 - Rufus Wainwright, “Spotlight on Christmas”

It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #20, and Rufus Wainwright's uncanny ability to write songs that sound 70 years old.

#20: Rufus Wainwright, "Spotlight on Christmas" (2003)

When I started prepping for this countdown, I thought that Rufus Wainwright's "Spotlight on Christmas," which first appeared on 2003's Maybe This Christmas Too?, was a cover of a much older song, and thus ineligible for inclusion. Fortunately for all involved, I was wrong, but my initial mistake speaks to both the timeless quality of the sentiments and Wainwright's own ability to conjure the spirits of Tin Pan Alley.

Take a listen again and see if you can't imagine the song as a bonus track on an Andy Williams, or maybe as a lost Bing Crosby number from the deleted scenes of Holiday Inn. So much contemporary holiday music goes out of its way to cover topics and feelings not represented in classic carols, but Wainwright proves that a little holiday moralizing should never go out of fashion.

Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop 25 Christmas Songs of the Last 25 Years: #21 - Nick Lowe, “Christmas at the Airport”

It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #21, and an ode to holiday travel by the Jesus of Cool himself, Nick Lowe.
 

#21: Nick Lowe, "Christmas at the Airport" (2013)

When Nick Lowe released his first Christmas album, Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family, in 2013, it didn't come as much of a surprise. Writing "Cruel To Be Kind" alone earned him the leeway to sing whatever he damned well pleases. What did surprise was the quality of the work; this was no phoned-in cash grab, or (even worse) a too-cool-for-school attempt at social commentary. The songs were good, and fresh; aside from "Silent Night," Lowe stayed away from any of the done-to-death usual suspects from the holiday songbook. That freshness also extended to Lowe's own performance. The man sounds downright lively; just try not to shake your ass during his country-fried take on traditional spiritual "Children, Go Where I Send Thee." I'll wait.

Your ass has shaken. You have failed.

In addition to curating a great set of overlooked Christmas tunes, Lowe also lent his own songwriting skill to the holiday canon. Of the three originals, "Christmas at the Airport" got the most attention at the time, and with good reason. Set during a nightmare layover, Lowe combats the frozen hellscape and creeping ennui with music-hall humor and a little jangly guitar. In addition to adding a little leavity to a situation that would give most people a mean case of the howling fantods, Lowe's song is just catchy, and probably the best song set in an airport since the Divine Comedy's "Come Home, Billy Bird." As critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said in his AllMusic review, "it speaks to the other side of Christmas, so it feels like it could be a Christmas perennial, a tart bit of counter-programming in a holiday season that can get too sticky and sweet."

After a career loaded with high points, Lowe can finally check "write a holiday standard" off of his to-do list.

Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop 25 Christmas Songs of the Last 25 Years: #22 - Blood Feathers, “Christmas Will Help You Feel OK”

It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #22, and a cure for the common Scrooge with Blood Feathers.



#22: Blood Feathers, "Christmas Will Help You Feel O.K." (2009)

It's the first week of December, and we're reaching a critical moment in holiday season: the intersection where public good cheer crashes into (and through) your own personal preparations. If you're reading this, you're probably behind.

We've got 21 days left until Christmas. For kids, this means a couple more weeks of running out the clock on another semester before coming home to yell at people on Xbox Live, or whatever children do in 2014. For adults, like all things, it's different. In the past few days, I've caught myself grinding my teeth while wondering how I'm going to finish up end-of-year work, lug a dead evergreen into my apartment, and stay defrosted during another Chicago winter without first gaining 50 pounds from my new all-eggnog diet. It's even worse for parents, who have to contend with all of that shit plus think up wackier antics for this year's Elf on the Shelf.

That elf is a menace.

During this period of peak holiday stress, it's nice to have a reminder that the whole thing might be worth it, at least a little. Enter Philadelphia's Blood Feathers, who spend the first portion of "Christmas Will Help You Feel O.K." detailing all the reason you might have to not feel ok to begin with. The song doesn't dwell on the negative, nor does it reach for any biblical lessons or Frank Capra platitudes. Instead, the band finds joy in the small things: an extra vacation day, a glass of scotch, the chance to mark another year in the record books and possibly sit in front of a fire while doing so. It's a pragmatic look at what makes the secular version of the holidays special, and why we value that kind of distraction in the first place.