Various Artists
A Very Cherry Christmas 4
Saturday 20th of December 2008
Since 2005, Cherryade has compiled a Christmas compilation, jam packed with unsigned bands and artists and containing songs of humour, social-commentary and even some that are nothing to do with Christmas but contain some sleigh bells.
This year, the Christmas-ness of the record is at least fourty percent higher thanks to seasonal bells (the big tubular kind as well as the sleigh kind) tons of Christmassy words and a genuinely seasonal mood.
Some songs are more serious than others. 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' is the lowest of lo-fi shouty songs, like a drunken party - but in an endearing way. Little My's 'Christmas Song' is an apparently sincere song, sounding very much like an eighties Christmas pop song.
As always, this record has many sides and some of them will grate and others won't, depending entirely on what you're into and just how commercial you like your seasonal tracks. There are some genuine songs that could easily have been real Christmas hits and there's a load of fuzz-junkie chaos that will appeal to those who can't stand the thought of another boy-band fake-snow video. It has all been carefully laid out to roughly pop the songs in nasty-nice pairs to keep you interested whatever your preference.
Special mentions go to Hearts!Attack for their fantastic and frantic offering and Detox Cute and the Beauty Junkies for taking us back to 1990 to swim through some great synth pop. Commiserations to The Lovely Eggs who pushed the vocals just a bit too far and Hotpants Romance for making us want to be as intoxicated as they were when they recorded that song!
This is a fun listen - even the worst of the songs are good natured and there are some good songs on here too. Probably nothing that the writers are particularly proud of, but a reasonable effort none-the-less.
Author: Steve
Label: Cherryade Records
Found in: Record Reviews