Five indie attempts at a Christmas hit
Move over, Mariah Carey; the sad girl sleigh bells are coming into town.
Yes, it may be the most wonderful time of the year in some respects, but there’s also no denying that Christmas can bring about a unique melancholic weight that sometimes you just can’t glitter over with a blast of ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’. We might all like to try and hide it, but the harsh fact of life is that our troubles don’t as easily melt away as ‘Frosty the Snowman’ might lead you to believe.
However, that’s where our favourite indie pals can come in to save the day. If attempting to keep up with all the festive buzz leaves you feeling more than a little flat, try a more subtle Christmas tune to suit the mood. Believe it or not, there’s more than a vast selection, with everyone from Blink-182 to Haim chipping in over the holiday seasons gone by.
The writing of a single Christmas hit is likely to be one of the most lucrative because holiday music has such enduring appeal and a predictable annual resurgence, and, of course, because there’s significant cultural importance attributed to songs of the genre. Unlike the majority of songs, that may fade in the conscious of the general public after a while, the Christmas hits enjoy perennial popularity—a fact that ensures an even stream of royalties, licensing deals, and cultural relevance annually.
Here, we’ve picked out five very indie attempts to cash in on that yearly income.
Five indie attempts at a Christmas hit:
Sam Fender – ‘Winter Song’
The King of Newcastle, Sam Fender, broke all our hearts in 2020 with the release of ‘Winter Song’, a cover of Lindisfarne’s 1970 Geordie folk classic. Released as a charity single, it served as a poignantly fitting reflection on the sadness and isolation brought about by the pandemic that year.
Fender explained to NME at the time: “I wanted to do a Christmas song, and wanted it to be close to my home and my heart. For me, the words are more relevant [in 2020] than ever.” Speaking of home, he was quick to credit Alan Hull, Lindisfarne frontman and writer of the stunning tune. He said: “Alan Hull truly was one of the most fantastic and underrated writers of his time. Geordie legend. I hope I’ve done it justice, I’m really proud of it.”
Phoebe Bridgers – ‘If We Make it Through December’
Another one from 2020 – Covid has a lot to answer for in terms of Christmas sadness – we have Phoebe Bridgers covering ‘If We Make it Through December’, originally performed by Merle Haggard. Bridgers’ soft tone adds to the holiday heartbreak as she laments: “Got plans to be in a warmer town, come summertime/ Maybe even California/ If we make it through December, we’ll be fine”, depicting a devastating optimism to a song that ponders how to survive the festive period after losing your job.
Now, the Bridgers Christmas cover has become somewhat of its own mini tradition over the past few years, with the American singer and third of Boygenius taking on a new festive tune every year since 2017. However, with no plans having been revealed for 2024 as of yet, we still wait with bated breath…
LCD Soundsystem – ‘Christmas Will Break Your Heart’
The New York electronic rockers LCD Soundsystem may not be the most obvious choice to pen a Christmas classic, but they managed to knock it out the park back in 2015 with ‘Christmas Will Break Your Heart’. It’s a relatively simple but still equally gorgeous little tune that had been floating around the brain of frontman James Murphy for some years prior.
Listing – helpfully – all the ways the festive season can get you down, the song reflects on feelings of loneliness, ageing, and the passage of time that Christmas circles back into our psyches, summed up in the lyric: “Christmas will crush your soul/ Like that laid back rock ‘n’ roll/ But your body’s getting old/ And it’s much too tired to be so bold.” However, the mood for LCD fans was not so forlorn as this surprise release on Christmas Eve 2015 marked the beginning of the band’s reunion the following year.
Julian Casablancas – ‘I Wish It Was Christmas Today’
Now that we’re all suitably depressed, it is probably time that we tried to lift the mood a little bit. We can do that in the form of Julian Casablancas’ ‘I Wish it Was Christmas Today’. If there was such a thing as a happy medium between the sonic extremes of the very similarly named Wizzard classic and ‘T-Shirt Weather’ by Circa Waves, this would be it.
The Strokes’ frontman creates a Christmas hit in the only way he knows how—indie sleaze with a jingle bell thrown in for good measure. Released in 2009, it was a callback to a legendary 2001 SNL sketch featuring Jimmy Fallon, for which the song had been originally written. But we think the Casablancas version is better.
Ye Vagabonds and Boygenius – ‘The Parting Glass’
OK, granted, it’s not technically a Christmas song, but Ye Vagabonds and Boygenius’ cover of the Irish traditional gathering song was released this time last year for Christmas appeal, and it’s an apt way to round off this list. In tribute to the late, great Sinead O’Connor, who sadly died in 2023, the bands joined forces to bid her farewell in the most fitting way possible.
O’Connor covered ‘The Parting Glass’ herself back in 2002 and is featured in the artwork for this version of the single as a lasting tribute to Ireland’s icon. Although it wasn’t initially intended as this, “Goodnight and joy be with you all” is the perfect lyric to send you off into the dark Christmas evenings.
