We Wish You a Merry Gothmas, various artists (Cleopatra)

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.