My love for Christmas songs tends to skip a year or two. When I don’t love them, I tell everyone who will listen how much I hate, how the holiday songs are a bunch of worthless cash grabs, and how there’s no soul in most of the famous vocal performances on any of those songs.
But, just as in the great holiday movies, out of the terrible angst comes some kind of miracle, a reminder about having to be thankful. And, when it does happen, it’s usually to the sound of Shane MacGowan, singing: “It was Christmas Eve, babe/In the drunk tank.”
This is my Alternative Christmas Playlist. It includes classic songs and new ones, destined to become classics further down the line.
It would be crass to call my selection the best. Yet, as unclassy as it sounds, I’d like to suggest that the leftfield, eccentric, odd Xmas songs are the only way to enjoy this niche style known as Holiday Music properly.
A lot of tears are shed on Christmas day, and lots of people bless their lucky stars regardless of whether presents have been stuffed underneath a tree. If there is such a thing as Christmas Spirit, that’s where it lives.
And, if that near-sacred feeling must have a soundtrack, this is the one that it deserves, I think.
