Alternative Christmas Music: 2018's Playlist

It's the start of December and as usual I post my playlist. It's my 14th playlist which is ridiculous to think about. I make a CD of these songs to send to my best of friends instead of Christmas cards. It's a mix of old and new as usual. Saving some of this years better stuff for next year. Please enjoy and send any feedback to @xmassongblog on the twitter. 
  1. Little Saint Nick - Best Coast
  2. Christmas Wrapping - Belle and Sebastian
  3. Wonderful Christmas Time - Mac Demarco   
  4. Silent Night - The Polyphonic Spree   
  5. Thanksgiving Song (Kill the Turkey) - The National
  6. All I Want for Christmas Is You - Charly Bliss
  7. Lonely Man of Winter - Sufjan Stevens 
  8. 2,000 Miles - Mark Kozelek   
  9. White Christmas - London Grammar                                            
  10. Feliz Navidad - Shame 
  11. Driving Under Stars - Marika Hackman             
  12. I Am the Grinch (feat. Fletcher Jones) - Tyler, The Creator
  13. God Red Ye Merry Gentlemen - Bright Eyes         
  14. Hey Mr. Santa - KT Tunstall         
  15. Christmas in Antarctica - The Minus 5 (feat. Ben Gibbard)
  16. Christmas in Nightmare City - Advance Base   
  17. Silent Night (feat. Iggy Pop) - William Shatner


Little Saint Nick - Best Coast
Here we go with a bouncy singalong favourite. Best Coast are a great from for the sunniest of Christmas tunes. 


Christmas Wrapping - Belle and Sebastian
Live in Scotland for the BBC. The Belles romp through the Waitresses hit. Stuart Murdoch can barely keep up with the lyrics but it's fun and fast paced whilst keeping all those Belle and Sebastian sensibilities.

 Wonderful Christmas Time - Mac Demarco  
Treading that fine line, wonderfully nuts but perfectly accessible cover of Paul McCartney's horrible original (sorry, I just don't like it).   


 Silent Night - The Polyphonic Spree
Creepy and yet beautifully delicate. This slow motion instrumental version drags in your attention. 
  

 Thanksgiving Song (Kill the Turkey) - The National
Their Bob's burgers covers are becoming a thanksgiving tradition. This one is sinister to begin with without the ending refrain.  

 All I Want for Christmas Is You - Charly Bliss. Saw Charly Bliss a couple month ago supporting Death Cab for Cutie. They put on a great show. Sadly was too early in the year for them to be covering Mariah. 



Lonely Man of Winter - Sufjan Stevens, ahhh what is Christmas without a Sufjan song and this year we got a new one well an old one but only just released. Other people tell this story better than me so I'll just link them here. We too prefer the remix so that's what you are getting. 


2,000 Miles - Mark Kozelek, said it before sure i'll say it again this is my favourite Christmas album of them all. We've also linked to this full play of the album before you'll want 06:30 for this track. 
White Christmas - London Grammar, sparse version of Bing's classic. Recorded for Radio One. Not my exact favourite band but I do this every year and I never promised I wouldn't put some filler in occasionally.    


Feliz Navidad - Shame, speaking of which here's another band people love but underwhelm me generally. This bounces along nicely though, probably my favourite thing they've done. 


 Driving Under Stars - Marika Hackman, nice original tune here. Just Christmassy enough.    

 I Am the Grinch (feat. Fletcher Jones) - Tyler, The Creator, Time was I'd never had believed I'd see Tyler the Creator soundtrack a kids movie, but then this seems to fit. Being the grinch he gets to exercise his nasty side. It's that rare thing a hip hop Christmas tune that doesn't suck. 
God Red Ye Merry Gentlemen - Bright Eyes, now I'm a huge Bright Eyes fan and obviously a huge Christmas song fan but their Christmas album isn't that great. This is one of the better tracks.
          

 Hey Mr. Santa - KT Tunstall, don't care if she's not cool anymore. This mild mannered protest song is great away. She promised a proper release this year but I haven't seen any sign yet. 

           
Christmas in Antarctica - The Minus 5 (feat. Ben Gibbard), Sometime REM offshoot and Death cab for Cutie lead singer team up to sing about being lonely (aside from penguins) at Christmas


 Christmas in Nightmare City - Advance Base, this odd one came out in June and is barely about Christmas at all but we've taken more tenuous links for worse songs before. It's a Sun Kil Moon style stream of consciousness. It's one of my favourite songs of the year.    
Silent Night (feat. Iggy Pop) - William Shatner. You are right to ask what the hell is this. I often finish my playlists with a silly song. I'd pay good money for an Iggy Pop Christmas album. He makes it sound sombre and special. Shatner ruins it in the way he does. 


Right that's it. As Always let me know what you think @xmassongblog on twitter or xmassongblog@outlook.com. Or the comments below I suppose. Hope you found something you like, Have a merry one.

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