From Down Under, Melbourne to be precise, this 70s-style funk band recently broke into the Northern Hemisphere via London and the EU, and for 2024 they dropped an EP with three original tunes: the soulful ballad title tune, the uptempo dance number "Wrapt in a Beau," and funky instrumental "The Bells of Holly Hill." Very cool. Downloads and streaming in all the usual places.
December 2024 Archives
Elizabeth's story started with her composing a Christmas song for a reality show about a decade ago, which led her into a career as a Christmas musical artist. For 2024, she's back with an EP in which she repurposes her original semi-hit "A Christmas Song" into "A (Metal) Christmas Song," in which the arrangement is salted with a few heavy metal readymades, but most listeners will probably only notice the typical thud-thud tempo of 70s metal being superimposed on what remains a good holiday pop song. Two new originals, "The Season Was Made For Us," with her kid contributing vocals, and "The Thanksgiving Song" extend her repertoire with modern pop sounds. She rounds things out with two covers, a rocking "Jingle Bells" in an original arrangement, and a moderately bombastic take on "Mary Did You Know." This will suit her fans, and the rest of us will likely find a playlist candidate or two here. Downloads and streaming.
These guys are all over this site's archives going back many years with their irreverent punk-thrash take on Christmas tunes. For 2024, they went there, even bringing on a female vocalist to do justice to the inescapable Mariah Carey hit. Get it from Bandcamp, and enjoy yourselves.
Back in 2017 we had an EP from these guys, who are a mostly instrumental band specializing in the Hawaiian style with a bit of Americana thrown in. They're back in 2024 with a full album, which is the EP expanded with six live recordings of "O Christmas Tree," "Sleigh Ride," "Christmas Island," "Let It Snow," "Feliz Navidad," and "Mele Kalikimaka." Added to the digital version is a previously released single of "This Christmas." Vinyl is available, as are streaming and downloads; those who already have the original release can just add tracks 7 to 13 via download, as those constitute the "Vol. 2" of the title.
Gaspard is a French singer with some musical roots in the UK R'nB scene, and for 2024 he drops a Christmas album with mostly original tunes and a couple of covers. Several of these were previously released, by the way. The sound is somewhere between old-school soul and pop, depending on the tune. He duets with Nicole Atkins on "Perfect Christmas Song," a solid pop-rocker, opens the collection strongly with "Home For Christmas," offers a midtempo "Winter Night," and covers "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" competently though no better. "Wishing You a Merry Christmas" is another duet with Aurélie Saada, "Next Train to Memory Lane" is a midtempo pop ballad, and "Xmas & the 3 Wise Men" hovers somewhere between Tenacious D and the "Big Bang Theory" fake band Footprints on the Moon, unintentionally so I'd imagine. "(C'mon Baby) It's Christmas Time!" is a cool rocker in a pop-rockabilly vein, the cover of "White Christmas" is a crooner arrangement with a mock martial beat backing the ballad tempo, and "Christmas Prayer" is another ballad whose sentiment is as advertised by the title. Some solid original songs here, with the Nicole Atkins duet being the class of the collection, and you can download and stream it wherever you get music. While tracking this down, I discovered Gaspard is quite the Christmas music fan, with a 2017 EP Wishing You a Merry Christmas that oddly doesn't include the song of that title, but features two songs not on the current album, "Last Christmas" and "New Year's Eve," a 2016 EP I Can't Believe It's Christmas (and Other Xmas Songs) featuring the title song, a duet with Eli "Paperboy" Reed on "Christmas Time Again," plus covers of "Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," and the single "Christmas Is Back In Town," a fairly cool number dating back to 2015.
New Jersey singer-songwriter Atkins joined with Minneapolis favorite son Morgan for this solid 2024 pop ballad about the season they co-wrote along with Kanene Pipkin of Lone Bellow. Sweet sounds topped off by a soulful guitar solo. Apparently this was commissioned for a Hallmark movie, though I don't know which one. Downloads and streaming everywhere. Oh, this isn't Nicole's only holiday effort this year either; she joins in with Gaspard Royant on his new album. Those with long memories may recall Nicole's previous take on "Blue Christmas," and I just discovered she co-wrote and later covered J.D. MacPherson's "Every Single Christmas" back in 2020. So check her out, OK?
Well, that's a blast of holiday rock I wasn't expecting. Parker Woodland is from Austin, TX (ya think?) and is a three-piece band in which nobody is named after the band, and in less than two minutes you'll forget there's any such person as Mariah Carey. The lyrics are a local shout-out to their home town and the music is solid upbeat roots rock 'n roll. Downloads and streaming, natch.
Fika Recordings is an alt-pop-rock label based in London, and for 2024 they've brought us this album by a Norwegian supergroup. Yes, that's a thing. Sunturns features members of such groups as Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva. Soundwise, it goes from power pop to alt-rock to chamber pop over its 10 original selections, instrumentally speaking, with vocals that might remind you of 60s and 70s pop groups from the Cowsills to Abba. Lyrically, well, they're from near, or maybe above, the Arctic Circle, so we get a lot of ambivalent feelings about the holiday season, starting with "New Snow," in which the foreboding begins; "Crash Course Christmas," in which the singer, faced with visitors, is having to put on his holiday game face; "Magnetic Field," in which someone is rebuked for bad behavior; "I Do," a ballad that starts ahead of the winter solstice and tries to find what little light is left at that time of year; "First Winter," an ode to a small child on the occasion of the holiday season; "Back in Town," about a Christmas return to a place you lived in the past; "Turtle Neck," a slightly loopy pop-rocker about asking for the title-described shirt as a gift; "Colibri Heart" offers a more upbeat holiday view even in the face of rainy weather rather than snow; "The Day Before the Day," a contemplative Christmas Eve ballad; and "This Christmas/Next Christmas," about trying to satisfy one's parents holiday hopes while dealing with their own family's holiday needs. This last one is apparently based on a Norwegian children's show, according to the press release. Downloads and streaming available, but the Bandcamp page is where you can get vinyl. And yes, there is a Christmas I and Christmas II available, more of the same, previously released in 2011 and 2015.
We previously had these guys on the site for a killer "Tex-Mex" Christmas album, and they're back in 2024 with this single, which has an early Beach Boys/surf feeling; it wouldn't be out of place on a Jan & Dean album. Killer tune, available for download or streaming wherever you do these things.
We glommed onto this indie Pittsburgh power-pop artist 
The classic English Christmas tune by Roy Wood's Wizzard gets a pop-punk rendition for 2024 by this popular band. The Dollyrots have a long history of Christmas tunes, and they're reissuing their Christmas album on CD with this cut included. Check them out on Bandcamp, as the updated album and this song haven't yet migrated to streaming.
A quick reminder that this site is an Amazon affiliate, and that commissions help to defray the costs of keeping this modest archive on the World Wide Web. Typically you can click on the album covers to take you to an Amazon page with the music you're reading about, unless there's no Amazon availability; then I put the link in the text. And of course, I'd appreciate it if you start your Amazon shopping trips from a link on this site. Amazon Prime Amazon Music
Discovering Sugar World's planned A Sugar Christmas 2 caused me to think there must be a number one edition, and so there is, and it dropped in 2020. More crunchy lo-fi indie pop, featuring four covers: Low's "Just Like Christmas," Sally Shapiro's "Anorak Christmas," the classic "Blue Christmas," and the Carpenters' "Merry Christmas Darling." Downloads and streaming, or visit Bandcamp.
Sugar World is a four-piece band from Los Angeles, and for 2024 they dropped this lovely lo-fi midtempo indie rock-pop ballad, a crunchy sound backing a sad tale of holiday ennui. Just for fun they flip the lyrics toward the end so everyone can be equally sad and reflective. This is part of an EP, A Sugar Christmas 2, but that's not dropping until Dec. 23, so I'm posting this now. Downloads and streaming everywhere, or visit Bandcamp.
Earlier we mentioned the Richard Peterson album from Green Monkey as being atypical for the label; well, not to worry, they also have this guy doing a 70s rock style Christmas tune for 2024. It's cool and available everywhere to download or stream.
The Bongo Boy label has a long-running album series of indie artists performing Christmas songs, as you might gather from the volume number above. For 2024 they're back, starting with Fans Of Jimmy Century, who check in with three new tunes, the power-poppy "Here Comes Christmas," a cover of "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" that's straight out of showtunes-ville, and "Santa Jamaica (Jolly Old St. Nicholas)," a not-entirely-convincing islands-influenced take on the carol. The New Bardots, a band that's figured on several previous entries in the series, provide us with new original "Pocket Full of Christmas," a cool rocker that narrates the holiday while swinging widely among various secular and religious holiday archetypes. "Christmas Eyes" by Boys 'N Barry with Wendy Tuttle is a 70s hit radio pop number about the child's-eye view of the holiday, Clark Ford and Underground Treehouse offer the pop ballad "I Remember Christmas With You," fairly self-explanatory, and Willow Layne and Countryside Studios perform "Just Me and You, December," which you will not be surprised to hear is a straight modern country lament, as is their other tune "St. Nick On Aisle Six," as well as Paula Boggs Band's banjo-led "Mistletoe & Shiny Guitars." Denise Fink and Roselyn Brinkman offer a classical flute and harp take on "Clair de Noel," which is mainly "Clair de Lune" with some carols mashed into it, and Simonne Draper's "Finesca" is another classically influenced instrumental. Steve Andrews also gets two entries on this collection, "Climb Through a Rainbow" and "We Can Sing Together," pop-rockers that don't seem to have much to do with the holiday. Dulcie Taylor has the jazzy "This Christmas Is Gonna Be Great," and Studeo wraps up with "Why Can't Christmas Last All Year," a 70s rocker with pop overtones. Given the title of the collection, the real rocking stuff is only about half the collection, but of course there are plenty of playlist candidates here. Downloads and streaming in the usual places, although Bongo Boy does offer hard copy at its website.
Haven't encountered Jonathan before, but this 2024 Christmas EP features six solid original tunes in a mostly soul/R'nB framework, although his publicity indicates he's best known in the gospel/Christian music world. Collection opener "White Christmas," not the classic tune, is a solid uptempo soul tune, while title cut "Red & Green," celebrating the holiday color scheme, has more of the contemporary hit chart sound. "Sent Me a King" and "Don't Take Christmas" are holiday soul ballads, more pop than gospel sounding. "Christmas Is Everything" picks up the pace again and "Forever Mistletoe" closes as a more R'nB styled ballad. Nice work, and if this moves you, Jonathan is touring behind it this season. Streaming and download options available.
The well-known hip-hop singer drops a single for 2024 in which she tells us she wants a "Big Santa" for Christmas, and you can probably imagine where she's going with this. Also included is "I Want You This Christmas," a similar tune in which the hook is her doing her Chipmunks impression. Solid listening experience and cool playlist candidates. Stream or download at your favorite services.
Conan's a YouTube vlogger with a reputation for sensitive pop songs. For 2024 he dropped this poppy ballad about remembering the Christmases of his youth, and it's a pretty darn good piece of work. Despite the origins, it's professionally produced, and I don't know what the credits on this are so I can't say if Conan is any good at this singer-songwriter thing or if this is one of those modern gang-written things that dominate the current charts. Nevertheless, I'm not quibbling with the results. Downloads and streaming available.
I haven't encountered these folks before, but they're from Toronto and they once cut an album called Mississauga Goddam, which if you're familiar with that city's suburbs is one hilarious title. Anyway, for 2024 they dropped this synth-orchestral take on the classic carol, kind of ponderous and portentous, but a reasonably interesting pace-changer for your playlists. Back in 2020 they dropped "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," which Stereogum notes was actually recorded in 2007 but only released much later; it's a fairly straight pop rendition of the song. Downloads and streaming in the usual places.
This Northern Englander is known for doing music that cuts across everything from folk to psychedelic rock. For 2024, he picked up his guitar and banged out this tune, which he describes as a "throwaway," in the same sense that Christmas/Boxing Day gifts tend to be trivial items you play with and then throw in a drawer. I admit to having a bit of a struggle with his accent, but I can say the sentiments here are sincere and will last a long time. Amazon shows this with a flip side called "Polytunnel," which is actually the lead single from an upcoming album and is not holiday-oriented. Streaming and downloads, natch. (I guess I should add this isn't the US game-show host who's been dead for a decade.)
A solid folky version of this classic carol comes to us in 2024 from this Liverpool duo who has two albums out. They're often described as similar to Portishead or Mazzy Star, but this rendition is right in the tradition of past folk and country performances. Get it on their Bandcamp page or stream/download from the big music services.
It's always news when a big name like Ed goes Christmas. For 2024, he dropped this sweet pop ballad, written to go with a new Netflix Christmas movie. It gets the full orchestra and choir treatment, but it features piano rather than his signature acoustic guitar. Streaming and downloads, of course.
Haven't encountered Madi before, but this Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter just dropped a cool indie-rock ballad about holiday ennui and how she hopes throwing herself into the holiday ritual will dispel the year-end blahs. Downloads and streaming, or you can visit her Bandcamp page.
