Labels: Small Bear Records
Review by: MH
Yet again an alternative Christmas compilation falls into my lap. There is always a huge clamour at Collective Zine when these kind of compilations come our way and everyone tries to get their greedy mitts on the goods but somehow this one has come my way again. This time out, it is 17 tracks long which is a heathy enough batch of songs for anyone in one go. The opener is Phil Reynolds & The Dearly Departed who I remember got sent in recently but I didn’t get round to listening to yet. Their track is keys-led and feels Christmassy enough although you might get away with listening to this in summer too. The next song has me hurtling into Christmas though. It’s a cover of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Reporters – a kind of lighter indie pop version of the song. Phil The Tremelo King continues in much the same vein with his sad “All I Want For Christmas (Is You In My Arms”) and it sounds like he was born to do Christmas songs. The majority of tracks have that indie slant and Christmas touches rather than being full-on Christmas-in-yer-face rabidness. There is a band on here called Watoo Watoo by the way. This was a children’s TV show in about 1985. Or sometime around then. I reckon that is about the time I saw it. I remember one of the characters walked around saying “Watoo Watoo” which inevitably meant that everyone at school used to walk around during playtime saying “Watoo Watoo” to each other. Watoo Watoo himself was a bird with special powers from a cube-shaped planet called Auguste. The band sing in French – it’s kind of electronic-y and gentle. Dog, Paper Submarine serve up something of a rowdy instrumental which is pretty good. Doesn’t feel that much like Christmas. Postcode’s song is some jangly indie pop with lots of merry christmassing in the lyrics.This album is what it says it is – it’s an alternative to your Christmas classics compilations. This is the 3rd Christmas compilation that the label has done so that’s your Christmas music sorted if you want some new Christmas songs and have had enough of Slade, Crosby and Aled Jones.