This rootsy Massachusetts singer-songwriter puts some often-missing swing into this 2020 version of the Wham classic. Yes, it's an overplayed song, but Eli makes it sound new. Flip side of this single is "Merry Christmas To Me," a solid 60s Stax homage, arranged in that show-stopping soul ballad arrangement that always gets me. This is a gotta-have single, and I wouldn't blame anyone for flipping the B side to A.
November 2020 Archives
This nerdy bunch of guys from California can make They Might Be Giants look like Otis Day and the Knights in the dormitory-rock genre, and we've had them on the site with Christmas songs before. For 2020, they offer one of the more annoying fur-bearing mammals as a gift (I had a friend who owned one, and every time I visited he would let it out and it would bite everyone's ankles). As you'll see in the lyrics, the reason for this gift was on the passive-aggressive spectrum. It's a fun change of pace. Get it from Bandcamp or Amazon.
Belgian producer/DJ duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike founded Smash the House records back in 2010, and as near as I can establish this 2020 release is the label's first Christmas album, a compilation featuring label artists. As you might gather from the label founders' DJ heritage, this is club music/EDM pretty much from start to finish. As for the "Home Alone" reference, there is a version of the original theme from the movie in this style by Ummet Ozcan & Jaxx & Vega, and a title song for the collection with no connection to the movie by Dimitri Vegas alone. The only other original tunes are "Christmas Time (feat. Jeremy Oceans)" by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Armin van Buuren & Brennan Hart, which starts slow but builds to a medium tempo dance number, and "Wonderful Dreams (Holidays Are Coming)" by Klaas, a solid composition that might benefit from a pop or folk ballad treatment, though this performance is perfectly fine. The remainder of the album is basically EDM arrangements of familiar holiday tunes like Coone's "The Nutcracker," 3 Are Legend, Brennan Heart & Toneshifterz' version of "Deck the Halls" featuring Timmy Trumpet, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by Dimitri, Mike and R3HAB, the Shakin' Stevens number "Merry Christmas Everyone" by VIZE and Dimitri, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" by Quintino, "Do They Know It's Christmas" by NERVO & Tiscore featuring Polina Vita, "Feliz Navidad" by F4ST, "Jingle Bells" by Bassjackers, "Last Christmas" by MATTN, Sylver & Dino Warriors, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Angemi, Wolfpack & Polina Grace, "Jingle Bell Rock" by Blasterjaxx & Tony Junior, "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" by Harris & Ford, Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" done by Dr. Phunk, and, almost inevitably, Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas is You" by Dimitri, Mike & Brennan Heart. If your holiday mixes are meant for the dance floor, you'll want some of this for yourself.
The word "Motown" inevitably makes most people think of that Detroit record label's remarkable run of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, with occasional successes in subsequent decades via Smokey Robinson, Rick James, Lionel Richie, India.Arie and Boyz II Men. You won't be surprised to discover that the label's 2020 EP of holiday selections feature no immediately familiar names, or that they're still working the latest variations of the pop/soul realm they always have. The set kicks off with "All I Want" by Asiahn, a piano-based ballad over a slow jam beat. Ted When offers "Snow in California," an acoustic guitar-led number with a folky feel to it, and NJOMZA performs "Christmas Blues," another soulful ballad. Tiana Major9 (a real music nerd's name, wouldn't you say?) does an almost completely unadorned gospel version of "Silent Night," and Joy Denalane covers Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas."
These guys are a veteran ska band from Bakersfield, CA (who'da thunk, right?) who have shared the stage with everyone from Ozomatli to the Specials, from the English Beat to Buck Owens. For 2020 they've dropped an EP with their takes on five classic carols, including both English and Spanish versions of "Donde Esta Santa Claus?" The ska treatment is also extended to "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Feliz Navidad," and they go more reggae-ballad style on an instrumental of "What Child Is This" and "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)." This is solid stuff and you should grab it or add it to your streaming playlists. Here's the link to get it for free. Offer only extends through December 31, so act now.
Punk-poppers The Dollyrots have been pushing out Christmas singles for a number of years now. and this 2020 double-sided single extends their repertoire to the point that you can have an all-Dollyrots playlist if you want. Their signature semi-Ramones style gets lent to the Darlene Love classic, and also to a version of "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" featuring their son River on lead vocal. Unlike a lot of kid vocals on Christmas songs, this one is tuneful enough to escape this site's usual stink-eye toward kid vocals. This is a pay-what-you-want duo, available on Bandcamp.
We've had holiday entries from these folks before, and for 2020 they give us a pensive tune they've variously tagged as "dream pop," "shoegaze," "electronic," and "psychedelic." It's more a winter song than a Christmas song, following the singer as he traverses the world to meet up with a lover. Good sentiment, if contraindicated in this pandemic year, but I think you'll enjoy this number, which will be available on Bandcamp on December 4.
Freddie guested with the Heatwaves earlier this year with "What Will Santa Bring," and he's also out in 2020 with a solo single that doesn't mention Christmas but is still billed as a holiday single. It has a late 70s midtempo rock feel with a bit of punky grunge in the guitars, and the lyrics express yearning for the holiday verities while doubting that they really exist. Nice work, and it's free on Bandcamp.
This one-man band has been doing new Christmas songs annually for years now, frequently covers but occasionally originals. 2020 brings us a new original, a slow-tempo ballad with piano and string backing. It's probably not telling to advise that the secret is the "Christmas things you do all year through." Not exactly a barn-burner, but definitely the downbeat changeup your party mixes may need. Click the cover to grab it from Amazon. UPDATE: Sleeping at Last has added another Christmas tune for 2020, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Chris records as Teflon Beast usually, but he also puts out recordings under his own name. Where the Beast-ly records are synth-based, experimental-sounding workouts, Chris' own records are more straight-ahead pop-rock songs. This 2020 EP features mostly original songs, except for a cover of "Gee Whiz, It's Christmas," and to be fair "Christmas Curry" essentially swipes the melody and arrangement of the Coasters' "Yakety Yak." "Have You Ever Been (To Winter Wonderland)" is a lush ballad, "Wish Me a Happy Holiday" is 60s girl-group minus the girls with more than a nod to "Leader of the Pack," and "You I Miss (Midwinter Solstice)" is a 70s-singer-songwriter-sounding midtempo number featuring crunchy electric piano and guitar. "Before the Season's Over" treads similar ground, and "Last Chance New Year's Eve" wraps up the year with a bit of power pop. Click the cover to find it on Amazon, or you can get it from Bandcamp.
The surf-music subculture just keeps hanging in there year after year, and this Santa Monica-based artist gets the jolly elf to hang 10 for us one more time in 2020. Interestingly, this particular version of the surf beat relies way more on keyboards for its uptempo sound than on guitar. Swing over to Bandcamp for your copy of this digital single. While you're there, note that Lex previously released "Keep Xmas Coming" in 2018 and "Santa's Got a Self-Driving Sleigh" in 2016, more of the same.
This Massachusetts singer-songwriter previously joined us in the holiday realm back in 2012 with "Coming Home Alone on Christmas Eve," and you might want to revisit that for your "COVID Christmas" playlists. Back in 2020, he's got a new pop ballad heralding the return of the holiday season. It's up for your listening pleasure over on Bandcamp.
Josh was out last year with a full Christmas album, and for 2020 he's back with a single of this classic carol. It's a lilting singer-songwriter arrangement rather than a full midnight-mass version as many perform it, and it's very much in the vein of last year's full album. Get it from Amazon or Bandcamp. UPDATE: The link now takes you to a page that includes "Angels" plus a cover of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" that apparently was a bonus cut when you bought a CD or LP of last year's album, and is now available digitally.
Last year this Atlanta transplant to LA came out with "Holidazed & Confused," a sharp pop holiday record, and for 2020 she's back with this number, a modern pop-rock ballad about enjoying the holiday traditions and making memories. It's not out until December 2, but it should be available widely at that time. UPDATE: Click the cover to get it on Amazon.
For 2020, the popular singer-songwriter gifts us with an EP featuring "Winterglow," a song he performed on "Gilmore Girls" in his character as the "town troubadour," and fattens up the release with Nat King Cole's "Take Me Back to Toyland," Frank Sinatra's "An Old-Fashioned Christmas," and a version of "Auld Lang Syne" with an extra verse supplied by Grant-Lee. This is a smoothly pop-folk performance that, in keeping with our quarantine year, is more pensive and personal. Phillips' fans will be right there for this (he's giving it away with the purchase of another of his albums on vinyl), and those of you looking for some holiday warmth will want to get in on this.
These folks definitely have a thing for 60s girl groups and Motown, as you'll hear when you cue up this sweet semi-Spector-sounding original. And you'll definitely want this, as it's a free download and won't mess with your quarantine budget. Grab it from Bandcamp.
If you need some Christmas music that fits right in with your Kraftwerk playlist, this Philadelphia duo just read your mind. Six popular public-domain carols get the all-synthing, all-dancing treatment from these guys. Their version of "Joy to the World" actually reminds me more of "Switched-On Bach," "Good King Wenceslas" has a bit of Trans-Siberia Railroad to it, and then "Wassail" and "Sing We Now of Christmas" get more of that Dusseldorf sound going on. "Jingle Bells (Jungle Bells)" is the familiar carol with a bit more funky drummer to it, and their arrangement of "Carol of the Bells" is less bombastic than most versions you'll hear this year. It's on Bandcamp and will find its way to streaming sites later in 2020.
Maggie's a small-town Canadian girl who's making a name for herself as a modern pop-rock diva, and for 2020 she has this relentlessly upbeat original about, well, partying for Christmas, a topic that never gets old. Grab it from Amazon.
These guys bill themselves as a "punk supergroup featuring members of the North Pole underground" according to their Bandcamp page, and this is pretty much what it appears: a 2020 EP of five classic carols done in punk rock style. Aficionados will note tributes to classic groups like Rancid and Bad Brains, and the performers apparently have experience with other similar kinds of groups like Prancid, Dead Kringles and Sleigher. Results are solid, professional and fun to hear, even if you've got a pretty solid collection of punk Christmas tunes already. Tunes include "Deck the Halls," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "Do You Hear What I Hear," a fairly swingy take on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "Carol of the Bells." Get it from Bandcamp. The band threatens a followup this year on December 11, so we'll keep an eye open for it.
This New York trio is the first to come to my attention with a new original tying a lonely Christmas to the current COVID-19 pandemic, and it's a nice midtempo ballad featuring singer Charisma on lead vocal. Although the press release mentions the COVID connection, lyrically this song will stand up to repeated future listenings as a general paean to loneliness. It's available in all the usual places.
Love Renaissance is actually a hip-hop record label (correct name LVRN) based in Atlanta, GA, and this 2020 holiday EP features members of the label roster on six repurposed Christmas tunes. Artists 6LACK and Summer Walker start things off with "Ghetto Christmas," a modernized take on James Brown's "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto," Young Rog & Shelley FKA DRAM take on Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad," OMB Bloodbath & Westside Boogie do a slightly profane version of "12 Days of Bhristmas" (that's how they spelled it, and don't think spellcheck didn't yell at me), Summer Walker does a slow-jam "Santa Baby," Eli Derby does a mellow take on Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas," and Shelley FKA DRAM returns on a fairly traditional reading of "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)." Kitty Ca$h contributes a few short song intros that are indexed as individual cuts. All told, a listenable, if short, collection of holiday tunes in a modern style. Grab it from Amazon by clicking the cover.
These guys made it onto our radar with "Santa Buy Me a Beer" in 2018, and they're back in 2020 with another, similar, bar-band rock take on Christmas. Like the other one, it's a free download from their Bandcamp site. Go on, grab it, you'll thank me.
I haven't heard of this Italian singer-songwriter until now, but he's got several albums and EPs to his name prior to this 2020 holiday-themed EP. Four original songs and one cover, "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" featuring Anna Elizabeth Laube on lead vocals, a typical pop ballad arrangement of that chestnut. The title song and "Xmas Is Here are light-hearted ukelele strums, the former more of a New Year song and the latter a duet with Laube. "I Won't Be Here" is more of the same, poppy and upbeat, and "Santa For Hire" swings away from pop into more of a chill arrangement with the help of R.V.A. Check this out for the warm poppy stuff, although "Santa For Hire" will fit in nicely with your electro-pop, chill and even hip-hop playlists. Not out until Nov. 20, I'll update with a link to it when available.
Rock By the Sea, a charity based in the Georgia-Florida area that unifies area musicians to raise money for human services non-profits, is, as you can tell from the title, out with their 11th Christmas album for 2020. As before, the collection of artists spans the various genres that make up Americana, although this year's collection features a couple of outliers: a synth-pop rendition of "Greensleeves" by A Co, and a straight-up pop-jazz orchestra rendition of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" by Joe Gransden and His 16-Piece Big Band. Jon Tyler Wiley and His Virginia Choir go mostly country over a rock rhythm on "I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day," Ghosthood featuring The Class of 98 turns "In the Bleak Midwinter" into a rock anthem, Sarah Potenza and Lang Freeman do a straight pop take on "O Holy Night," and Jeffrey Butts puts a syncopated rock beat under "Little Drummer Boy." Rob Fetters renders "The First Noel" as a guitar instrumental, Joe Alterman also dispenses with vocals on a gospel piano version of "Feliz Navidad," and Ultrababyfat does a mostly faithful version of the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" with a more hard rock rhythm. Some of these numbers are originals, like Rachael Sage's Hanukkah ode, "Tchatchkes & Latkes," Melissa Ferrick's Celtic-flavored "This Time of Year," and Rebecca Howell's "Christmas With You. You can get this from Bandcamp as a download or a physical CD, or check into Amazon by clicking the cover.
Teflon Beast has put out a number of home-brew indie-rock Christmas recordings in recent seasons, and for 2020 they are back with a full album of similar performances. "Sugar Cookie Trippin'" is a synth-pop number with kiddie singing that evokes a number of holiday themes without directly playing much of them. "(Me) At Xmas" is a short bite of grungy guitar and muted singing, "Jingle Bell Jam" revives the old schoolyard version of the classic carol involving Batman's odor, "Tangled Up in Lights" is a synth-rocker about Christmas decorations, "Crying Snowman" is an extended chant over drum machine and organ, and "Holiday Cheer" is a bit of melodic tinkertoy music featuring a cheap keyboard melody. There's a murky version of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and a talking-over-synth-drone take on "Let It Snow," and a pair of songs called "Noise at Christmas," parts one and two, mostly live up to their titles, although they sneak in bits of familiar carols like "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Frosty the Snowman." You can grab this from Bandcamp.
Letting everyone know that holiday posts will begin in the next few days.
This is also a personal note to those folks out there who are occasionally in contact with Rudolph via snail mail. I've relocated and my geographical address is different. Drop me a line and I'll bring you up to date.
