Maybe it’s the fact that you hear it non-stop in any customer service job for two-plus months, or maybe the kids just don’t like Bing Crosby like they used to. Perhaps it’s because in our angst-ridden early adulthood, a crooner’s release of “Silver Bells” simply doesn’t touch our icy soul. But whatever the reason, it seems that many people at York don’t like holiday music.
If you find the blizzard of Christmas tunes around this time emotionally numbing, infuriatingly catchy, culturally assimilating, too religious, or conversely, too commercial, you’re not alone. It’s part of the lethal holiday mix that drives employees and customers everywhere into a state of rage.
But there may be hope yet for the herds of Christmas-weary students. Not all Christmas music is so bad. Over the last decade or two, the music industry has slowly trudged out some gems by bands a little more worthy of radio play than Susan Boyle.
Here are 15 downloads to put on your next seasonal mixtape:
1. “Did I Make You Cry on Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved it)” by Sufjan Stevens
Of the 50 or so Sufjan Stevens Christmas songs on record, this is the best. The instrumentation and Stevens’ shaky, harmonized voice have all the drabness and depression of an office X-mas party, but the overall arrangement is beautifully moving and folksy.
2. “Christmas Lights” by Coldplay
This single, released in 2010, begins low-key, led solely by a sparkling, effervescent piano, but eventually achieves the kind of grandiose, heavily orchestrated Coldplay heard in “Viva La Vida.” It’s also a rare Christmas tune about heartbreak and relationship problems.
3. “The First Song” by Band of Horses
The best Christmas songs are those that aren’t actually written for the season — the lyricist just had the holidays on their mind. The vocals in “The First Song” are cried with BoH’s typical uber-reverb, but one of the few clear lines is “Christmas time’s coming.”
4. “I Wish it Was Christmas Today” by Julian Casablancas
Casablancas, the frontman of The Strokes, does a jingly cover of the song made popular by Saturday Night Live’s Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz, Tracy Morgan, and Chris Kattan. Aside from the expected Casablancas throatiness and danceable beat, the rendition is actually pretty faithful.
5. “It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop” by Frightened Rabbit
The Scottish indie band’s attempt at a Christmas track is as touching as it is minimalist. Mostly backed only by the carefully composed plucks of an acoustic guitar, the song builds to a swell of choir humming and percussion, and feels like an audio sweater being placed over your shoulders after a sad skating trip.
6. “Are You Coming Over For Christmas?” by Belle and Sebastian
The Glasgow band’s playful Christmas gem kicks off with a jazzy tone, evoking famous holiday tunes from the 40s, while having the likability of modern indie pop’s most darling act. From there, the duo’s soft and lispy vocals accompany an alternation of big brass and tranquil bass strums.
7. “Candy Cane Children” by The White Stripes
Maybe the most gritty and unpolished Christmas song of all time, “Candy Cane Children” is actually a somewhat hard find, especially its studio version. Nonetheless, it’s worth the search for Stripes fans, with Jack at his most unhinged, tattering his vocal chords, and Meg slamming those drums like she literally wants to break a record.
8. “All I Want for Christmas” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
In a way, this is as Christmas-spirited as you can get: Karen O actually sounds pleasant and a little seductive, and there are some unexpected holiday tropes thrown in: jingle bells behind the sheen of guitar strings, a snowfall tempo, etc. But a sloshed-sounding O dedicates the song to “the people they love” right off the bat, so you can be rest assured this wasn’t some festive cash-in.
9. “I Do Not Care for the Winter Sun” by Beach House
Some people do not care for Beach House’s too-distant, ice queen sound, but it lends itself well to a winter-themed song. The tune shivers with Christmas loneliness, and is warmed only by the sound of its own sunburst electric guitar. It ends with Charlie Brown-worthy Yuletide lyrics (“it’s all that matters this time of year”) but they’re chilled with a melancholy piano outro.
10. “Xmas Time is Here Again” by My Morning Jacket
If Radiohead and Fleet Foxes had a disappointingly conventional baby, it would be My Morning Jacket. If nothing else, that baby would’ve been born to perform a hipster Christmas anthem or two. That’s exactly what these bearded boys with bad style did. “Xmas Time is Here Again” is gentle and harmless, a little poignant, and very suggestive of the winter woodsmen in the recording booth.
11. “The Christmas Song” by The Raveonettes
The most popular of the songs on this list (you’ll definitely hear this in an HMV or Sears around this time), The Raveonettes’ holiday jam is still commendable for its great musicality and for the Danish duo’s reliably haunting, consistent harmony. The lyrics are traditional Christmas schlock, but nothing can take away from moving chord changes and faint guitar wailing.
12. “Got Something for You” by Best Coast and Wavves
At first, the collaboration between real-life lovers Best Coast and Wavves doesn’t sound so different from a Target Radio choice (because that’s exactly what it was written for). But over two minutes, these Cali surf rock hipsters pull out their own brand of rad, sneaking some garage-rock crunch into a market-friendly exterior.
13. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Death Cab for Cutie
This one’s kind of a cheat, as you’ll be sick to death of U2’s version by late November, but Death Cab manages to escape the Christmas music trap, turning this “classic” into a fairly traditional yet well-composed indie rock song, with the bonus/detractor of Ben Gibbard’s beautiful voice.
14. “Christmas at the Zoo” by The Flaming Lips
An upbeat, sort of Christmas-y song, performed by pop rock’s weirdest band. It starts off seasonal enough, with disheveled frontman Wayne Coyne lamenting about the lack of snow on Christmas Eve, but pretty quickly he’s just shouting about monkeys and birds being loose. What else did you expect?
15. “Christmas in Harlem” by Kanye West
No such list would be complete without Kanye’s sleazy and nostalgic six-and-a-half minute, ghetto-blasting gift to the world. Bringing with him an army of urban music all-stars, West manages to hit a sweet spot in spite of himself, and produce a crude, vulgar, ass-shaking Christmas carol that’s also unexpectedly worthy of a fireside hot chocolate.
With 15 fine Christmas songs at your disposal, you may make it through the holiday toil yet. Get these on a mixtape and block out Kelly Clarkson. You can still have a hipster — I mean, happy – holiday season.
Dustin Dyer
Features Editor
