This album, released in the USA as Holidays Rule (a culturally appropriate title since the “holidays” period in the USA covers Hanukah, and Kwanzaa in addition to Christmas), but as Christmas Rules internationally, was the brainchild of “producers Sara Matarazzo, Chris Funk and executive producer Randall Poster of bi-coastal music-supervision company Search Party – along with executive producer Nancy Jeffries of MPL” (source: official site holidays-rule.com)
And their intention, apart from celebrating a shared love of holiday music, was to bring together an eclectic group of talented indie musicians with a bent for Americana-styled sounds, who could create an album that paid homage to the holiday music standards while still making a thoroughly modern statement about what Christmas means here and now.
“I love holiday music,” Matarazzo volunteers. “But every year I find myself going back to the standards. I wondered, where’s the holiday record for this generation? This was a chance to create something that gave today’s artists a chance to put their mark on the tradition.”
She goes on to say:
“That was the one constant in all these different recordings – that warmth, intimacy and conviviality – those qualities that bring us all a little closer.”
And I have to say I think they have largely succeeded.
Each artist – and the roster is quite diverse featuring everyone from The Shins to current pop darlings fun. through to Paul McCartney, Fruit Bats and soul legend Irma Thomas (with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band) – infuses their chosen song with their own unique flavour while still allowing the songs to retain that distinct sense of, for want of , let’s just say, “Christmas-ness”.
It feels like one of the Christmas albums of old, with all the attendant “warmth” and “intimacy” (Matarazzo again, who is clearly someone I’d enjoy hanging out with given her effusive love of Christmas music) of those recordings, but, and this is where it excels, it also feels like an album of music that belongs together, and could stand on its own two feet as an artistic statement regardless of its genesis as an assemblage of holiday music.
And that, says the album’s press release (holidays-rules.com), was deliberate.
“[the producers] strove to give the project the feel of a cohesive album, rather than a holiday hodgepodge.”
There are 17 tracks on the album and while every track is remarkable, there were five that stuck out for me, pretty much like any album, and which I keep going back to again and again.
fun. – “Sleigh Ride”
This song leads off the album and what a giddy bundle of joy it is.
It perfectly captures the innate happiness of this song while injecting it with a sense of longing and melancholy which in no way weighs down the song and interestingly enough bolsters the upbeat feel of the song as a whole.
The producers of the album referred to the band giving the holiday favourite “a frosty techno swirl” and they’re dead on.
This is a bright poppy fun. song through and through while still sounding like the sort of sort you could bop away to while decorating the tree, or yes, taking a sleigh ride.
THE SHINS – “Wonderful Christmastime”
The indie darlings from New Mexico have more than lived up to their reputation with this charming version of “Wonderful Christmastime.”
It is bright, summery and breezy – perfectly capturing the vibe of a typical Australian Christmas while distilling, no doubt, the longing of those trapped in winter’s embrace to escape to warmer climes – and makes you instantly want to bounce around the room like a tree decoration be played with by a curious cat (yes that bouncy).
Again, it is a beautiful mix of the sound most people would associate with this much-loved song and the new with the band making it very much their own.
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT (feat. SHARON VAN ETTEN) – “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
Way to bottle purring seduction into a shade-over-four-minutes-long-song guys.
“Baby It’s Cold Outside” is one of those songs that is suffused with all manner of longing and lust anyway but Wainwright and Van Etten, all smoky vocals and lingering looks (OK I am visualising here but listen to the song and you’ll see what I mean), amp it up to a whole other level.
They capture the lovers’ desperate need to forestall an inevitable parting on what is a romantic snowbound night, and instil a sultry quality in a song that isn’t short on it by any measure.
This is desire wrapped up with a big red bow and you will love it.
IRMA THOMAS (feat. THE PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND) –
“May Ev’ry Day Be Christmas”
Affectionately known and revered as the “Soul Queen of New Orleans”, Irma Thomas has one of those luscious jazz voices that I could listen to all day.
Her voice, redolent with emotion, glides smoothly over every note, and when you team her with the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band of New Orleans (which is actually made up of numerous Dixieland Jazz and traditional jazz bands who perform at the Hall), you have a winning formula that makes this song a must listen.
Until I heard this song I had associated smooth, silky jazz stylings with Christmas but it’s so good that it has made me a believer.
THE CIVIL WARS – “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
The quiet beauty of this song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is given an appropriately understated treatment by the Civil Wars (who true to name, split in early November citing “internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition”).
Their delicate guitar playing and breathy vocals are the perfect accompaniment to a carol in which Longfellow laments the fact that “hate is strong and mocks the song / Of peace on earth, good will to men” until he realises anew that “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep”.
The melody is seductively soft for a song of deep, almost wretched personal reflection but the lyrics and music work together to create a song that captures the spirit of the season perfectly.
And The Civil Wars elevate it further still with this rendition that draws you into the sort of place of quiet torment and then joyful release that gripped Longfellow.
And in a season as busy as the average Christmas, that’s an exceedingly good thing.
* I’d love to know if you’ve had a chance to listen to it and what you think about it? Too indie for you? Not traditional enough?