Even more help needed…: the ‘Shopping CD’ went down so well with the PTB at work that I’ve been asked to put together a Christmas CD to accompany the Head Office Xmas dinner. The word ‘tasteful’ has been bandied around. Now, I don’t believe there is any place for the tasteful in Christmas music – or rather, I tend to think that if you want tasteful get a Kings College Choir CD in and be done with it. I am a firm traditionalist when it comes to Christmas pop tat and it is only the finest songs (eg “Have A Cheeky Christmas”) that pass muster.
So I am at a bit of a loss as to how to make this CD. I like the idea of putting together something decade-spanning, unusual, a mixture of the familiar and the novel, blah blah blah. What to actually put on it though I have no idea. So I’m very open to suggestions with one proviso: no indie.* No, not even Belle And Sebastian doing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” or whatever it is. No, not even Low. I’m sorry to be churlish about this but I’ve heard a lot of ‘alternative’ Christmas songs and it’s not something that ever comes off, if you’re going to record something seasonal you need to have a wholehearted sentimental love of the season or at least an appreciation of the greed, tackiness and shame that accompanies it. Yer independent sector tends to have a noble disdain for a) sentiment and b) commerciality and without them at Christmastime where are you? Nowhere.
*(when I publish the tracklist you can all point and laugh at the one or two indie songs that are going on it, what I mean of course is “no indie that I haven’t already liked for years”.)