Now – The Christmas Album

Greg Lake, easily, with honourable mention to Chris deBurgh

Greg Lake the worst for me here, worse than even Glitter

Eh

just hate that last line, find it completely insufferable

I hate "stop the cavalry"

voted last christmas, absolute banger from Georgey boy

I also have an affection for the wizzard and slade songs which are indelibly linked to christmas back home in my head and which make me feel homesick if I listen to them (I haven't been in Scotland for christmas since 2013)

last christmas is the one but i'm gonna throw wonderful christmastime a vote bc i am a deviant

Wonderful Christmastime is redeemed by bloopy synth weirdness. The rest of these songs are a stain on humanity

Will admit I'm not really sure what Sinfield meant by "the Christmas we get we deserve" or how it even squares with the rest of the narrative of disillusionment and humanist scepticism.

xps

Band Aid over Wham, the Beach Boys and, I guess, Bing.

Both of the songs by former Beatles drive me up the wall.

The only one i own a copy of is 'happy Xmas (war is over)', cos the b-side is the best (yoko ono - 'listen, the snow is falling')

Greg Lake easily.

Of the ones I know, the Oldfield is the only one that wouldn't annoy me. I wouldn't want to hear it all December, though.

I think Sinfield, as an atheist, is saying that humanity rather than God will have to provide the granting of Christmas wishes.

Wrote this about it a while back

Written by Greg Lake, ‘I Believe in Father Christmas’ began life as a series of major-key acoustic guitar variations around the theme of ‘Jingle Bells’. Words were added by Peter Sinfield, the lyricist behind I Talk To The Wind, The Land of Make Believe and Think Twice and concern the usual sentimental paean-come-requiem to the lost innocence of Christmas past – a hallmark of seemingly every Christmas-based work from ‘A Christmas Carol’ to this year’s John Lewis ad, only here presented as a startling revelation. Musically it’s not that bad, but it’s a bit too po-faced for my liking, especially the threat of “be it heaven or hell / At Christmas you get what you deserve” incongruously jammed in at the close. It’s as pompous at ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’, only without the ‘charity’ excuse.

Don't agree that "They sold me a fairy story till I believed in the Israelite" is commonplace Christmas song sentiment.

hmm, well not that line maybe, general thrust of the piece though

I think Sinfield, as an atheist, is saying that humanity rather than God will have to provide the granting of Christmas wishes.

I think you're right that he means the collective 'we' need to work to find peace on Earth and it is humanity's fault that we haven't. But surely it doesn't follow that everyone is equally receiving what they justly deserve from humanity.

Which is the least-loved of the 70s/80s classic cuts these days? Mud maybe?

almost certainly Glitter

Ha yeah!

Modern equivalent seems to feature Spector very heavily

https://www.nowmusic.com/albums/now-christmas/

jfc 71 tracks!

Mariah in a walk

wait

fuck this shit

Wham! or Johnny Matthis i think

i do love the Greg Lake but it's a wrong choice for various reasons

no Waitresses either? who the fuck would buy this aberration?

i like the Lenin and Ono one too to be uncharacteristacally honest

i mean i like most of them

it's more a question of "most overkill"

waitresses didn't become canon until 2000s I think - this is a record from 1985

so this is what my uncle plays on a loop every fucking xmas. at least covid will spare me this year

most of this is horrible. the beatle offerings are particularly shoddy. the slade is probably good if you somehow haven’t heard it a billion times. I like white christmas but I’ve heard it enough. mariah pisses all over this crapfest

oh right CaAL, skimming under the influence

obviously a ton of reasons to hate all of this but

I like both of the Beatles ones to be honest. I really like the synth sounds on the McCartney one. an execrable song I'm sure especially if you are trying to be "objective" about it but I do enjoy it

im not familiar with the Elton John or Greg Lake songs. Or maybe I am but I cannot conjure them in my brain off the cuff

Strange ones for me are Shakin Stevens (Merry Christmas Everyone, his big Xmas hit, was released just after this LP came out) The Beach Boys and Queen.

Voted Macca, no hesitation

I like the Greg Lake song, it was stuck in my head for an entire year

kinda sad that it was his only solo hit though

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Still love "Last Christmas".

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the Lennon song is creepy as fuck

“Do they know it’s Christmas” ooh terrible stuff

“Last Christmas” is p good

voted for just a little bobsled we call Saint Nick with the four speed stick

She's candy apple red with a ski for a wheel
And when Santa hits the gas man just watch her peel

^This is a Pimp C lyric, right?

don't know how much it plays in UK but last few years Last Christmas has become the most overplayed and overcovered song here, like "50% chance some version of it will be playing if you switch to the christmas station" overplayed, and i can't listen to it anymore