Entries categorized as “Christmas Top 25” 25 results

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.

Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop 25 Christmas Songs of the Last 25 Years: #23 - Logan Whitehurst, “Me and the Snowman”

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 #23, and an ode to winter friendship from the late, great Logan Whitehurst.
 

#23 - Logan Whitehurst and the Junior Science Club, "Me and the Snowman" (2004)

One of my favorite moments during the (criminally unheralded) 1987 television special A Muppet Family Christmas comes around Act II. After barging in on Fozzie's mom's house, the gang sets about preparing for an old-fashioned Christmas. Fozzie himself gets put on tree duty, but quickly forgets all of that when he comes across an anthropomorphic snowman with a taste for vaudeville comedy. The two joke their way through a loose rendition of "Sleigh Ride" before Fozzie runs off to tell Kermit about his new find. That scene usually gets cut in the home video release, owing to the high cost of music rights, but I always loved it.

Maybe Logan Whitehurst did, too. The talented singer-songwriter and former member of The Velvet Teen, who passed away eight years ago today at the (criminally young) age of 29, certainly appreciated the same kind of wide-eyed, back-slapping humor that Fozzie Bear embodies. It comes through on songs like this one, a feel-good slice of mid-'00s pop about, well, Logan and a snowman, hanging out and doing winter stuff. It's not explicitly a Christmas song, but in a season that values cameraderie and good will, it fits in better than most standards.

Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop 25 Christmas Songs of the Last 25 Years: #24 - The Hives and Cyndi Lauper, “A Christmas Duel”

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 #24, and a duet from two unlikely collaborators.
 

#24: The Hives and Cyndi Lauper, "A Christmas Duel" (2008)

Come on a holiday journey with me for a minute. First, think of "Fairytale In New York," one of the Pogues' greatest songs and the tune that would probably top this list if it hadn't come out in 1987. Remember the couple from that song, the ones whose sentimental deathbed reunion can still wring boozy tears from all but the most flint-hearted of Scrooges? They're great, right? Now, imagine how they must've been years before, back when they were younger and healthier and still being total assholes to each other.

Such is the scenario suggested by "A Christmas Duel," a swaggering carol of infidelity and antagonism that features Howlin' Pelle Almqvist of Swedish garage journeymen The Hives trading suggestive, profanity-laced barbs with none other than Cyndi Lauper. In a genre loaded with high-profile, ill-advised duets (lookin' at you, Bing Crosby and David Bowie), this one is the definitely the least schmaltzy. No wonder it's also probably the most fun.

Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop 25 Christmas Songs of the Last 25 Years: #25 - The Posies, “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 begin today, with #25.
 

#25: The Posies, "Christmas" (1996)

I'm going to open this countdown with a bold assertion: compared to the 2000s, the '90s were a terrible time for indie-rock Christmas tunes. Whether it was fatigue from the charity single explosion of the mid-1980s or the slack-assed Gen-X jadedness that colored most of the decade, it suddenly stopped being cool to write your own holiday music if you weren't Mariah Carey or NSYNC.

Fortunately, the Posies were fine with being squares. On the simply-titled "Christmas," singer Ken Stringfellow quietly turns in one the best performances on Geffen Records' 1996 Christmas compilation Just Say Noel. Instead of hiding behind irony (Sonic Youth's "Santa Doesn't Cop Out on Dope") or turning in a smirking adaptation of a classic (Beck's "The Little Drum Machine Boy"), the Posies' frontman does what he does best: sing a delicate song about feeling uncool feelings at a time of year when everyone else is happy. It's the best (and most melancholy) four minutes on the entire compilation, and one of the finest holiday songs from a decade not known for them.