Eleven of this year's best Christmas songs

It's less than a week to Christmas Day - so here's a quick round-up of this year's new Christmas songs and festive cover versions. Presented in a big long list with next to no commentary because I'm drunk on eggnog.

1) Indina Menzel and Michael Buble - Baby It's Cold Outside
The video is almost too cute to bear.




2) Nothing Left To Do (Let's Make This Christmas Blue) - The Both




3) Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me

Stick around for the blooper reel at the end of this video.




4) Nashville Cast - Blue Christmas



5) Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
A supercut of every Darlene Love performance for David Letterman since 1986.




6) Dum Dum Girls - On Christmas
Shades of St Ettiene here.




7) Bombay Bicycle Club - In The Bleak Midwinter




8) Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett - Winter Wonderland
Don't let this fool you into buying their album.



9) Sam Smith - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
For God's sake, won't someone give him a hug?




10) Cornershop - Let The Good Times Roll



11) Little Mix - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
Technically awful, but oddly compelling.

And that's it from me for now... I'm taking a break for my first Christmas as a Dad (which is as exciting as it sounds).

I'll be back with my annual Top 10 lists sometime between now and the new year.

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Songs you may have missed: Santa Claus edition

Hello!

I'm about to wrap up the blog for 2013, with just the annual Top 10s to come between now and New Year (unless something ridiculous happens like, say, Adele suddenly releasing a 24-track video album recorded on the moon with a backing band of hamsters on Boxing Day). So, for one last time, here's a round-up of songs you may have missed, interspersed with a few festive favourites.

1) James Brown - Go Power At Christmas Time
Not a sleigh bell in sight, but it's still a big shiny bauble of brilliance.



2) Busta Rhymes - Thank You ft. Q-Tip, Kanye West, Lil Wayne
Q-Tip and Busta have a long history of top-drawer collaborations, starting way back with A Tribe Called Quest's Scenario in 1992. Their latest, from Busta's forthcoming album E.L.E. 2 (Extinction Level Event 2), is no exception.

Based around a sample from Alicia Meyer's I Want To Thank You, it also features verses from Kanye and Lil Wayne who, frankly, sound a little intimidated by the competition.

And if you want more of the same, Busta and Q-Tip have just put out a free, collaborative mixtape, The Abstract and the Dragon, which is available here.




3) Disclosure - Help Me Lose My Mind (SOHN Remix)
If you thought Disclosure's Help Me Lose My Mind was minimalist before, wait til you hear what London-Austrian producer SOHN has done with it.

His hushed, stripped-back production makes a virtue of Hannah Reid's choral vocals, drawing you deeper and deeper inside the song as it unfurls like ink in water.





4) Kate Bush - December Will Be Magic Again
"Oh Saint NICK-o-lass, Up the CHIM-en-eee." Totally amazing.





5) Grouplove - Ways To Go
Grouplove are basically the indie-pop Scissor Sisters and this song, which has featured in an advert for GoPro cameras, looks like it'll be their breakthrough hit.

The video, in which a young Kim Yong-Un becomes a fan of the band and starts wearing Hawaiian shirts around Pyongyang, is a must-see:





6) Blood Orange - You're Not Good Enough (Holy Ghost bootleg)
Poor Dev Hynes (aka Blood Orange, aka Lightspeed Champion) lost everything - even his pet dog Cupid - in a New York apartment fire this week. The letter he published about the devastation ("It's my life. It's everything I've ever owned... loved... it's all gone") will break your heart.

At one point, he talks about going back on tour to give his life a sense of normality. I'm not sure that's wise - but whatever works...

In the meantime, handing over some cash for the music he's made could help him get back on his feet. Thankfully, that includes such classics as Solange's True EP, MKS's Flatlines and Sky Ferreira's Eveything Is Embarrassing and this, his new single, remixed by DFA's Holy Ghost. It's terrific.





7) Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
Next time someone tells you "well, of course, objectively speaking Fairytale Of New York is the best Christmas song ever written" put this on at full blast and tell them to get a grip.





8) Angel Haze - A Tribe Called Red
Furious, thrilling, magnificent.





9) Vance Joy - Riptide
This was a huge hit in Australia earlier in the year, and I can see it doing the same in the UK in 2014.

Jammed full of pop culture references (Midnight Cowboy and Michelle Pfeiffer to name a few) it also carries a shrewd lyrical observation in the chorus: "I love you when you're singing that song - and I get a lump in my throat cause you're gonna sing the words wrong."

Warning: Riptide is a little bit like the Lumineers' Ho Hey played on a ukelele, so steer clear if that's the sort of thing to make you want to rip apart a cushion.





10) Otis Redding - Merry Christmas Baby
"Santa came down the chimney
Half past three y'all
Left only my good old present
For my baby and for me
HA HA HA"

The sound of a man in the recording studio after one too many sherries.

Hmm, looking back at it, that's quite an eclectic mix of styles and genres. Well done for getting to the end. And have wonderful Christmas, one and all, wherever you are.

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Stop everything. This is amazing.

100% guaranteed to put a smile on your face: Mariah Carey and The Roots perform All I Want For Christmas Is You on schoolroom instruments. Is there any song that can't be improved with a kazoo? (Hint: no).

Jimmy Fallon, The Roots and Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You

How can we start a petition to get Jimmy Fallon broadcast in the UK?

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Listen to The Killers' seventh Christmas single

For a band who record a charity Christmas single every year, it's surprisingly hard to find a picture of The Killers wearing Santa hats or shiny red noses. This is disappointing.

Less of a letdown, however, is this year's entry into their Christmas canon. Feel It In My Bones is a smoky, impatient rock groove, featuring the return of the Psycho Father Christmas from 2007's Don't Shoot Me Santa, played again by Ryan Pardey.

Recorded in one-day on a pit stop on their current world tour, the song is by no means dashed off. In fact, it trumps a couple of tracks on their current album Battle Born.

Once they hit 10 tracks, The Killers' Funtime Christmas Party Album is going to be something quite special, isn't it?



Feel It In My Bones is out on Tuesday, with all proceeds benefitting Aids charity (RED).

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Feliz Navidad de Simon Le Bon

I'm taking the customary Christmas break from blogging... but I'll be back next week with the Top 10 singles and albums of the year (a definitive list - none of the others count).

Hope Santa brings you everything you want, and that the Top Of The Pops Christmas Day revival isn't an unholy mess. Until we meet again, here are Duran Duran, wishing you a Happy Christmas in poorly dubbed Spanish.



Mark
xx

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It's a hip-hop Christmas, yo

Ahh, Christmas. The snow is on the ground, the trees are festooned with decorations and little orphan children are pressing their noses up against my window, watching hungrily as I scoff yet another mince pie. Go away, orphan children! These mince pies are not for you. Scram! Skidaddle! And try to find yourselves a precocious ginger friend. She will be adopted by a bald millionaire who'll take pity on the orpanage and save you from your lives of grime and penury. Just like in that movie.

Anyway, one thing Christmas is definitely not associated with is hip-hop. Yet, here is Snoop Dogg, trading Gin And Juice for Mulled Wine and Figgy Pudding. He's reading the classic Clement Clark Moore poem, 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, for reasons that I have yet to fathom.

Snoop Dogg - A Christmas Story

It doesn't end there, either. Without any real explanation, someone has forced their grandmother to read out 50 Cent's vile, offensive tweets to a backing track of Christmas music (it would have been better if they'd hired some Ho Ho Ho's - crap joke ed). This one is not safe for work.

Grandma reads 50 Cent's tweets

Let's round this off with a honest, clean Christmas tune from the old skool. There aren't many good festive raps, but this 1980 classic is one of them...

"People let me tell you about last year, when that dude came flying over here". You gots to love Kurtis Blow.

Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rapping

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HONK! It's a Crimbo playlist

Hi!

In my other job as the Sultan of BBC Entertainment News (it's an honorary title), I have had the pleasurable task of putting together an alternative Christmas playlist, and discovering lots of new festive songs along the way. I now feel jollier than Santa on Boxing Day.

Hopefully, I have managed to post the whole thing below in Youtubey format - and each video will play automatically when the previous one ends. You can also listen to an expanded version on Spotify by clicking on this link

No Cliff, no Wizzard and no Fairytale of Bloody New York on repeat every fifteen minutes.

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Merry Crimbo!

Right, this'll be the last post before I return from my Christmas hols in the magical Winter Wonderland that is Rochdale. Hope Santa brings you everything you asked for, particularly if you asked for the Ladyhawke album or a brand new Domino Rally set.

In the meantime, here's some Christmassy and not-so-Christmassy reading material to tide you over.

:: The writers behind Mistletoe & Wine, Fairytale Of New York and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day reveal how the songs came about - and how much they get paid in royalties every year.

:: Meanwhile, The Guardian interviews a bunch of people who are mentioned in pop songs - including the man/woman who inspired Walk On The Wild Side and the record company executive namechecked in Enya's Orinoco Flow (?!)

:: Just because The Killers film all of their videos in a desert, and Alexandra Burke's budget only stretches as far as buying 50 candles from Poundstore, it doesn't mean the music video is a creatively bankrupt medium. Here's Spin Magazine's list of the year's best ones, which skillfully includes Bert and Ernie's Ante Up lipdub.



:: Speaking of Alexandra Burke, her recording of Hallelujah is approximately the 1,298,388,515th version of the song. Test your knowledge of the others in a quiz I wrote last week.

:: Best bit telly from the last week - Tom Chambers and Camilla "dial her up" Dallerup performing a showdance to If My Friends Could See me Now, from the musical Sweet Charity, in the grand final of Strictly Come Dancing



:: Worst bit of telly from the last week - Girls Aloud slaughter The Loving Kind live on GMTV. Particularly noteworthy is Sarah's bum note at 3:50. Even Cheryl cringes.



:: The Onion lists its worst films of 2008. Bizarrely, it doesn't include The Love Guru.

:: Goldfrapp say they're starting work on a new album. Best. News. Ever.

:: Pedants unite - here's a Wikipedia list of common misconceptions, which debunks so-called facts like "your hair and fingernails continue to grow after you die", and "Gordon Brown says he's a fan of the Arctic Monkeys" (he actually prefers Last Shadow Puppets, fact fans).

:: And, finally, the now-customary silly pet videos.

Number one: Christmas cats



Number two: Dog going mental


Happy bloody Christmas to you all.

Love and mince pies,
mrdiscopop

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Credible Christmas songs pt II

If you like your singer-songwriters female and fragile, then you're in for a treat: Here are Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles performing their new duet Winter Song on US TV:

Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles - Winter Song


Poor Ingrid, she can't even afford a full-size guitar...

The song is from a compilation CD from hipster LA music venue Hotel Cafe, which also features Fiona Apple doing Frosty The Snowman (awesome) and Katy Perry slurring her way through White Christmas (excruciating).

Infuriatingly, it's not available in the UK. In fact, the copyright restrictions are so severe you can't even watch the cute Youtube animation that accompanies Winter Song if you're outside the US... Although you can see a really poor quality version of it on the People website.

I thought this was the season of sharing and goodwill to all men?

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Let the festivities commence

Goldfrapp have recorded a version of Felix Bernard's Winter Wonderland for a Starbucks Christmas CD. It is predictably lovely.

Goldfrapp - Winter Wonderland


Anyone want to start a petition for a full Goldfrapp Christmas album?

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Coca-Cola ruin Christmas

Excuse me, but where has this advert gone?

Dear Coca-Cola,
Christmas doesn't officially begin until you wheel this advert out. Your current campaign is a schmaltzy pile of crap with monorails. I mean, seriously, monorails?! Please sort this out asap.
Yours,
mrdiscopop

PS: I swear this will be my last Christmas-related post for the next two weeks.

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Let the bells ring out...

It's around this time of year that record companies and bored newspaper editors start to talk up the "race for the Christmas number one". Sometimes the race is a truly exciting marathon, as proper pop acts with real fanbases run as fast as they can towards the finish line. Other years - like this year - it's more like a round of It's A Knockout. Only without the laughs.

The front-runner for 2007 (yes, I am going to keep the tedious racing metaphor up for the entire post) is the as-yet-unidentified winner of X Factor. This isn't necessarily as evil as knee-jerk spectators may imagine - Girls Aloud's Sound Of The Underground was Christmas number one way back in 2002 and it is a bona fide pop classic, after all.

Unfortunately, however, the eventual winner is recording a Westlife-tastic cover version of Kelly Clarkson's American Idol single A Moment Like This, thus proving that when pop reality eat themselves, their shit sounds the same. (NB: Leona to win!)

Because of the crushing inevitablity of the X-Factor "phenomenon" topping the charts, no-one else is really even entering the race. Slade and Cliff Richard are turning up at the starting line out of habit but, at their age, no-one really expects them to go the distance.

Running as a relay team are Peter Andre and tits-out model Jordan his thoroughly respectable wife, Katie, who release their cover of A Whole New World, from Disney's Aladdin. Its a hell of a lot better than the version that was circulated on the internet a few weeks back, but it still sounds like two squirrels fighting in a tin bucket.

Who else is under starter's orders? Ricky Tomlinson has a song called Christmas My Arse, which is every bit as bad as it sounds. And that Crazy Frog is murdering Wham's Last Christmas. Apparently, he missed the memo telling him to fuck off and die.

Bookmakers William Hill have also taken bets from punters who desperately believe George Michael, Justin Timberlake or Eminem could make a spirited last-minute dash for the finish line. But it will never, ever happen. And not just because the three of them are permanently enveloped in a haze of smoke from 'special' cigarettes.

In fact, the only decent song I can find in the starting list is Lily Allen's Littlest Things, and I don't even like it that much. Good video though:



So, for now, I'm off to listen to my Phil Spector Christmas Album. Bah and, indeed, humbug.

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Snow is falling... all around us (sorta)

Just a few more work days to endure before the Christmas holidays! We've just put up our tree, which has definitely not been christened "The Gay Spaceship".



Merry Christmas, everyone!

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