All I Want for Christmas - the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Christmas has come round again and, like last year, it's a season of worry as much as celebration, and this is reflected in my Christmas choices, a little more introverted than celebratory, more alternative than mainstream.
If you're like me and can't stand listening to Christmas sounds all the year round I have moved all the great Christmas songs from the Uncle Stylus Music Spotify playlist, to a yuletide Uncle Stylus Christmas List for your delight, although I confess that last December's picks by The Raveonettes and the Killers were so good that I made an exception and left them on all 2021 (see https://www.unclestylus.com/single-post/the-christmas-song-the-raveonettes and https://www.unclestylus.com/single-post/a-great-big-sled-the-killers-featuring-toni-halliday respectively).
The greatest Christmas song of the rock era is still, without doubt, Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" from the iconic Christmas Album by Phil Spector, closely followed by the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York". It's curious that Love's second Christmas single "All Alone on Christmas" was, as far as I'm aware, the first to feature the line "All I want for Christmas is you" and she rendered best as well, as opposed to the vapid, lcd top selling ditty of the same name by Mariah Carey.
New York indie rock band, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, use it too, displaying all the qualities the general m-o-r seasonal offerings chiefly lack: a good tune, real sentiment, originality, quirkiness, a cracking vocal and a feeling of joy, no matter how laid back. You can feel the snow falling in the cold night on this one.
Regular readers will know there's usually a link between each Uncle Stylus selection so see if you can spot it here.
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