tue 03/12/2024

CD: Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler - This is Christmas | reviews, news & interviews

CD: Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler - This is Christmas

CD: Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler - This is Christmas

Hugely enjoyable original seasonal collection from an unexpected source

Emmy and Tim prepare for Christmas. In late August, by the look of it

This is an unexpectedly wonderful album. A five-star rating might seem a bit much but then judging music in the same way as sport or exams is a bit crap anyway. So let’s say 5/5 compared to other Christmas albums and, yes, this is at the very summit. Ever. Then again, it’ll be useless from 2 January until next December.

Making a Christmas album is like writing haikus or cooking soufflé - it follows a precise formula, absolutely requiring key elements that are incredibly hard to quantify correctly and, most especially, make even faintly original.

The backstory here is that smashingly affecting singer-songwriter Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler, frontman of Northern Irish punk-pop trio Ash, were snowed in last December and, originally calling themselves Sleigher, wrote a song, here present, called “Sleigh Me”, then decided to make an album.

It’s all brilliant, from the explosive Spector-esque guitar pop of “Marshmallow World” to the trash-lite silliness of “Zombie Christmas”, the string-laden last-song-at-the-prom “Christmas Moon” to the WHAM!-like “Snowflakes”, the Ramones pastiche “Christmas Day (I Wish I Was Surfing)” to the stupidly touching “(Don’t Call Me) Mrs Christmas”, about a lovelorn Santa’s missus. Then there’s the single “Home for the Holidays” which nails all the stupid, messed-up emotional explosions and nostalgic love affairs Christmas can possibly wreak, however much we sideline it. As for “Jesus the Reindeer”, it’s so contagiously goofy my capacity for description flakes in the face of it.

Thematically, This is Christmas is half about the sense of longing, love and human affection Christmas at its best can bring, whether we’re into it or not – a fact acknowledged directly in the poignant acoustic sign-off “See You Next Year” - balanced with perfectly estimated nonsense garage pop. Only time can tell which Christmas tunes have legs – as the saga of “Fairytale of New York” bears witness - but this deserves to join the club. An absolute gem.

Watch the video for "Home for the Holidays". Richard Curtis couldn't nail it better

 

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters