Popnarcotic

Sounds A Little Bit Like Christmastime! (Holiday Music Mix 2022!)

December 20, 2022 at 7:19 am (Uncategorized) (Christmas)

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Blessed Kwanzaa! Or just best wishes on the end of the year, happy solstice, etc. etc. Regardless of how or why you celebrate, it’s that time of year when a young man’s attentions turn to cheer, joy, friends and family nearby and far away.

I really planned to have this done last week. Two weeks ago, even. But every time I’d listen to the mix of songs I thought I’d use, I’d realize that the mix was either really slow and sad-feeling (which, yeah, I’m not here to be the Feelings Police by any means, but I’m also not making music mixes for Christmas to have everyone crying in their seasonal Christmas ales either.) I tried moving songs around. Nope. So I started subbing stuff in, and tearing stuff out.

Thus and so, suddenly it’s Sunday and I’m starting to wonder if I’ll even have a holiday music fiesta to share this year. After having a lovely dinner out with a couple of friends, I got home that evening and decided to do a little bit of prep for work on Monday — meaning fiddling with some spreadsheets. Excitement. I also figured I’d take another stab at things with the holiday music mix, and rearranged a few more songs, added two, took out three. Started playing it while I worked, not really paying attention to the tunes.

And so that’s when it happened. Somewhere around minute six or seven or eight into the mix, I realized that I’ve had kind of been bopping and bouncing in my desk chair to the music, absently playing drums on my desk with a pen. And all that warm and fuzzy George Baileyish, Bob Cratchity holiday spirit is roaring in my veins.

Which is to say, we have a mix of holiday tunes for 2022! What do we have this year?

The whole thing kicks off with the inimitable JD McPherson. JD’s Christmas album, Socks, is a must-have. And wahey, a new Chris Isaak holiday music album? Yeah, sign me up. And though I’m no fan of certain singers trying to proclaim themselves the Queen of Christmas or whatever, I am a huge fan of Charly Bliss taking that singer’s song and absolutely rocking it; I’ll take helium-voiced Charly Bliss lead vocalist Eva Hendricks over the original any day.

There’s lots of fun stuff packed in here. Irish band Pugwash do a ripping good job with XTC’s “Thanks for Christmas”, and God bless Pugwash frontman Thomas Walsh for singing it in his own Dublin accent (essentially making this song “T’anks for Christmas”). I love Remi Wolf’s soulful take on “Winter Wonderland”. I’d also been thinking about using Sparks’s amazing “Thank God it’s Not Christmas” in a mix for more than a decade, but always wondered, “Are people ready for Sparks?” It’s 2022. Any of y’all who are still uninitiated and unaware of their enduring brilliance are finally ready for Sparks.

One of the few repeat tracks on this year’s mix is “Just Like Christmas” by Low. Sadly, Low singer and drummer Mimi Parker passed away a few weeks ago, and I’ve had that track going through my mind ever since…so it’s here again. I love the Swansea Sound song here as well; that’s the collaboration of Hue Williams and Amelia Fletcher (Heavenly, Marine Girls, etc) and company. (Should any young’uns out there ever be told that playing rock and roll is the way to a dissolute future, steer them to Ms. Fletcher’s hilariously unique wikipedia page which begins by identifying her as a singer, songwriter, guitarist and economist before noting that she’s a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.) And finally, if “Groovy Xmas” by the Linda Lindas doesn’t get your blood pumping, you may not be ready for the oncoming holiday.

As is tradition, this is one long MP3 — everything’s sequenced the way I’d like, with the volume across the tracks normalized so you won’t get too blasted out by the rockers here. You should be able to right-click and download, or just click to stream.

And as always, I hope this music finds you in fine fettle. Have a happy and joyous and safe holiday season!

Sounds A Little Bit Like Christmastime! (Holiday Music Mix, 2022)

Oh, and howzabout a track list:

1. JD McPherson “What’s That Sound?”
2. Chris Isaak “Almost Christmas”
3. Charly Bliss “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
4. The Linda Lindas “Groovy Xmas”
5. Swansea Sound “Happy Christmas To Me”
6. Sparks “Thank God It’s Not Christmas”
7. Remi Wolf “Winter Wonderland”
8. Low “Just Like Christmas”
9. Andy Bell “Listen, The Snow is Falling”
10. Huey Piano Smith & The Clowns “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas”
11. The Walkmen “In the New Year”
12. Otis Redding “White Christmas”
13. The Bell Rays “Rocket Ship Santa”
14. The Killers “Great Big Sled”
15. Pugwash “Thanks For Christmas”
16. Cheap Trick “I Want You For Christmas”
17. Punchline “Together”
18. Boston Spaceships “Christmas Girl”
19. Tracey Thorn “Joy”
20. The Pogues and the NYPD Choir and such