Indie label Cleopatra has persisted into the modern era with its occasional forays into the slowly dying genre of Christmas compilations, offering really cool punk, general, alternative rock, southern rock, psychedelic, rockabilly and psychobilly collections over recent seasons. For 2024 it's "Gothmas," bringing goth and industrial bands together for downbeat but by no means unlistenable takes on Christmas using familiar tunes and others less so. Five songs are by Cleopatra's Dark Ensemble, about which I couldn't find more info but I'm going to assume is some sort of label-organized ensemble, doing "Silent Night," "Carol of the Bells," "Deck the Halls," "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" narrated by Malcolm McDowell, and the collection's title song. The band Priest also does "Carol of the Bells," in a unique arrangement less bombastic than most rock bands' takes on the song. Kap Bambino offers the original "Red Water (Christmas Mourning)," an unexpectedly upbeat synth-poppy tune, and This Cold Night's "Reindeer" is similarly poppy in a more goth-oriented tune. R. Missing takes on "Little Drummer Boy" in a minor-key arrangement, Buzz Kull's version of Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December" is suitably dour for the collection while stealing a synth riff from Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry," and La Scaltra's "Sleigh Ride" is based on the riff from an 80s-90s song that currently escapes me. Rosetta Stone covers Sisters of Mercy's "Driven Like the Snow," Die Krupps takes on the Sonics's "Santa Claus" goth-style, and David J's version of Taylor Swift's "Christmases When You Were Mine" is suitably desperate-sounding. Skold takes on the Kinks' "Father Christmas," The KVB covers "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," Xiu Xiu performs "Frosty the Snowman," Missing Persons (the very same!) goes with "Last Christmas," 45 Grave does "The Snow Miser Song," and a version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" comes to us via Leaether Strip (spelled correctly). All told, a very listenable collection, and even the non-goth-oriented folks out there should be able to find some playlist candidates here. Note to vinyl-heads: only the first 14 songs of this collection are on the ancient artifact version. To get the full 20 songs, you must buy the CD, download, or stream it.
November 2024 Archives
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This popped up as a vinyl artifact last year; it's found its way to streaming in 2024. This is not what one might expect from the lead guitarist of the Patti Smith Group, but it's a nice emotional ballad about giving for the holidays. The band does the flip side without Lenny. Should be in all the usual places now.
Covering the Chris Rea original for 2024, Dasha does a nice job. A contemporary hit production, but it goes heavy on the acoustic guitars while laying down a bit of atmospherics in the arrangement. This one's a Spotify exclusive this year.
The popular pop singer takes on the Lindsay Buckingham original in an 80s-influenced synth-pop production. Very good; yet another 2024 Spotify exclusive.
Don't know much about Ambor, but this 2024 cover of Chuck Berry keeps to the original's guitar arrangement over a more syncopated backing. Poppy, but a serviceable cover. Stream it at Spotfy only this year.
A fairly conventional jazz-pop cover of the popular carol, I have it here mainly because it's one more of Spotify's exclusives for 2024.
Here comes another cover of the Joni Mitchell classic for 2024 as part of Spotify's exclusive Holiday Collection. This one's a piano instrumental, if that's your jam.
Here's a Spanish language original for 2024 from this Guatemalan group of brothers. They have won Latin Grammys as well as Dove awards, so they are pretty well known in Latin circles as well as the Christian music scene. Another Spotify exclusive for 2024.
Some have suggested Ben's best-known tune "Brick," about an abortion the day after Christmas, was a Christmas song, but I never was down with that, and in a Variety interview Ben disavows any notion of that. So you won't hear a retinseled version of that on this 2024 holiday album. What you will hear is a handful of solid new originals based in the holiday, cast in Ben's signature singing and piano playing and backed with imaginative arrangements. "Sleepwalking Through Christmas" addresses the very real phenomenon of going through the holiday motions, "Me and Maurice" is about walking his dog in the snow, "Christmas Time Rhyme" is a sprightly number, "We Could Have This" showcases the romance of Christmas with duet partner Lindsey Kraft, "Xmas Aye Eye" is a synth-pop ditty in which Ben used AI to write the lyrics, and "Little Drummer Bolero" and "Waiting For Snow" are instrumentals. Ben also covers "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," Burt Bacharach's "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle," and Mills Brothers obscurity "You Don't Have To Be a Santa Claus." Plenty of playlist candidates here, and an enjoyable album that can be listened to all the way through.
This San Francisco-area performer has several albums under her belt as well as a history in commercials and jingles. For 2024, she is dropping this ballad that she calls a true story of her 6-year-old self seeing Santa's sleigh in the sky. Not too sappy considering the subject matter, and she gets props for writing "The Costco Chorus sings on high/Jingle Bells and Silent Night." Appears to be streaming and YouTube only.
Amy's had a number of past Christmas songs, and for 2024 she drops this ballad that's a plea for togetherness wrapped up in ethereal backing behind her own singing and guitar picking. It's beautiful as well as meaningful, and it has a new Netflix movie tie-in with "Virgin River." Located in all the usual places. Please note Amy's a co-producer of this year's Kevin Jonas Sr. album.
This is the father of the Jonas Brothers offering his own EP of Christmas music for 2024. Often known as "Papa Jonas," the collection is released under his own name, and all songs are written or co-written by him. The title song provides a fairly cool pop-rocker to get your attention, then we get "Jesu Bambino/O Holy Night," an original tied into the classic carol. "ChrisMess" is a fun take on dodging everyone's issues during holiday gatherings, "Stained Glass Window" is a power ballad (remember those?) about worshiping in church, "Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer)" offers the I-got-mine-give-everybody-else theirs sentiment often heard this time of year, and "Wrap Me Up in Christmas" is a nice uptempo party song, although having Mom ask to be unwrapped at the end might not be as sexy as the composer thought it was. "ChrisMess" gets a reprise at the end in a more countrified version. All told, it's kind of a Dad-joke equivalent of a Christmas collection, but feel free to graze it for playlist entries.
Søren was a member of a band named New Politics, which was pretty popular on the international scene, but he eventually ended up working as a songwriter and producer in Nashville. He recently got the urge to record for himself again, and in 2024 he dropped a solo album and this new Christmas single. It's a solid modern pop rocker, almost power pop if you factor out the radio/streaming sheen on it. Streaming and download in all the usual places.
Pacific Northwest label Green Monkey has provided us with a number of fine alt-rock Christmas albums over the years. For 2024, they're dropping this album, which at first glance doesn't seem in keeping with the label's reputation; at first listen you assume this is a bit of retro-Christmas orchestral pop. Indeed, most of the songs are public domain classics, although Richard offers two originals, "Christmas By the Roundabout" and "On Christmas Day," both midtempo ballads, and a couple of the classics are augmented by the otherwise unidentified Phil Green: "'Phil Green' Sleeves," featuring some additional lyrical flourishes along with the "What Child Is This" lyrics normally offered, and "Green Christmas, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." There's also versions of "Little Drummer Boy" and "It's Christmas Time Down in Bethlehem." The publicity notes that Richard is influenced by soundtrack music of the early television era, and as an indie musician, he achieves his sound with the heavy application of synth keyboards to provide the string and horn sections that soundtrack music demands. This is an extremely quirky offering, but it's also pretty listenable. On Bandcamp and elsewhere.
This 2024 release may be the first big-name application of AI in the Christmas music realm. Brenda gave permission to have her vocal redone in AI to allow the song to be sung "by her" in Spanish. There's a single with the original version on the other side, otherwise it's available in the usual places. While tracking this down I discovered there was an EP in 2023, A Rockin' Christmas, with five songs, all previously released except a second version of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" that was remixed by someone named filious (no caps). You might find this to be fun to drop into a playlist of more modern holiday tunes.
John hasn't been the transgressive indie filmmaker for many years. Since his "Hairspray" was reimagined as a musical, he's been writing books and hitting the lecture circuit. One think he did do that's relevant here is compile a great off-the-wall Christmas album a good while back. For 2024 he dropped this single on Bandcamp, which is a mediocre cover of the Singing Dogs version of the carol. Flip side is "It's a Punk Rock Christmas," a silly monologue that is heavy on the sex talk (make that queer sex talk), though I admit to letting loose a few laughs at some of the gags. Not mandatory, but fine if this is your jam.
.... but I finally climbed down into the listening room with some of the early stuff that's coming for Christmas 2024. First reviews will follow soon. I appreciate your patience.
