The Christmas feeling comes in many gradations and timbres. Warmth, we want tofeel. Trusted music wins out over novelties, as Spotify’s top 10 of the moststreamed Christmas songs teaches us. Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For ChristmasIs You’ and ‘Last Christmas’ by George Michaels Wham! set the tone as usual,while Andy Williams’ sixty-year-old ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’takes on Chris Rea’s relatively recent ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ (1986).
Promising is the rise of Ariana Grande (‘Santa Tell Me’, 2014), Sia(‘Snowman’, 2017) and Kelly Clarkson (‘Underneath the Tree’, 2013) as singersof potential new Christmas classics. All three want the same thing: a lovethat turns out not to have melted into a puddle of water after one wild nightunder the richly decorated tree. Indeed: the same sentiments that alsooccupied Mariah Carey and George Michael in their indestructible Christmasevergreens. Last Christmas I gave you my heart and this year I have only onewish: you. Preferably in Christmas packaging with a bow on it.
Does nothing new ever happen in the Christmas songs that we all love to hear,stream and sing along with? An abundance of songs appears in which songwritersgive new meaning to the Christmas feeling, from Christmas among the dinosaurs(‘Tyrannosaurus Rex for Christmas’, The Lovely Eggs) to the worries of a childin a deprived neighborhood where Santa Claus can’t find a chimney to put thepresents. (Sharon Jones, “Ain’t No Chimneys in the Projects”). Ten tracksstand out this year because of the original, heartwarming or simply hilariousway they touch on the Christmas spirit.
Nelson Christmas present
Dordrecht singer Nielson (Niels Littooij) has set the table for two.Everything is set for a magical Christmas, because didn’t she promise him thatshe would be his Christmas present this year? She didn’t come last year.Hopeless is Nielson, until he looks out the window: Yeah yeah yeah (not aBeatles quote, but autotune) there she is!
Linde Schöne You Don’t Have To Come To My Parent
In this voluptuous Christmas bell production, the Nijmegen singer promises herlover an intimate Christmas under the mistletoe. “Then we’ll go our way untilsunrise,” she rhymes lamely after a Springsteen-worthy saxophone solo. Don’tbe afraid to play Scrabble with the family, she tells her suitor. Bestsentence: “And we’ll deal with your fear of commitment next year.”
kid bug Just Like Xmas
Dedicated to Mimi Parker, who passed away in November, the drummer and singerof the group Low who sang the original of this song on the most beautifulindie Christmas album ever, Christmas from 1999. Kidbug is the collectivearmed with heavy fuzz guitar around singer Marina Tadic (Eerie Wanda) whogives the song a ghostly charge.
Daniel Lohues The Light of the Christmas Tree
After ‘Kerstfeest Met Joe’ (2006), the Drenthe bard Lohues is no newcomer tothe field of Christmas music. In his fat dialect from the Land of Bartje hesings how beautiful it is, “all those lichies and those lanterns”. His InExcelsis Deo comes with the note that peace on earth will not be in the cardsfor the time being.
Gaspar Royant Xmas & the Three Wise Men
In recent years, the French chansonnier Gaspard Royant has developed fromtraditional rock to a more electronic, experimental framework. Thiscollaboration with producer Le Superhomard and Australian singer MaxwellFarrington has a pleasantly bombastic eighties vibe, for those cold Decembernights.
Lauren Spencer-Smith Single on the 25th
Her demo of ‘Fingers Crossed’ went viral on TikTok before English-Canadiansinger Lauren Spencer-Smith ventured into this Christmas song. „ Kissingunder the mistletoe ” and ” walking through the snow ” are nice activitiesto get through the 25th of December, she sings jealously. But you have to havea boyfriend or girlfriend first.
**Pentatonix & Meghan Trainor ** kid-on-christmas
Close harmony and a fat disco beat are the ingredients of the collaborationbetween vocal group Pentatonix and pop star Meghan Trainor. That reindeer canfly and that Santa reads everyone’s wish list: only a child believes that.Meghan wishes us to be children forever at Christmas.
Chris Isaac Dogs Love Christmas Too
Isaak’s rockabilly-tinged album Everybody Knows It ‘s Christmas appears onSun, the revived label of Elvis Presley’s early records. Dogs love Christmasbecause Santa always pulls a dog biscuit out of his pocket. One big advantage:unlike the owner, they don’t have to do Christmas shopping.
Phoebe Bridgers So MuchWine
How much wine must a man drink before the vessel is empty? In Bridgers’heartbreakingly melancholy cover of an obscure song by The Handsome Family,the word “Christmas” is mentioned only once. A Christmas slump, or perhaps aChristmas depression, never sounded so compellingly beautiful and sad before.
Josh Stone Snow
Yet one more classic crept in through the Christmas album by the Englishsinger Joss Stone, who plucked her ode to the healing effect of a large packof snow from the film WhiteChristmas (1954). What’s Christmas without snow,Stone wonders wistfully with a lavish orchestra. „ Oh, to see a mountaincovered with a quilt of snow! Irving Berlin, because he wrote it, couldn’thave put it more poetically.