A Very Indie Christmas: 2016

Add these 2016 indie Christmas songs in your hipster playlist!

We all know the Christmas classics – ‘Sleigh Ride’ (1963) ‘Last Christmas’ (1986), ‘All I Want for Christmas is You (1994). Instead of playing those tracks to death for the next fortnight, you might want to mix things up with these brand spanking new indie Christmas songs. They’re guaranteed to make you feel 100 percent more festive in an instant!

The Killers‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’

For a decade now, Brandon Flowers and his bandmates have been releasing annual seasonal tunes in the name of charity (specifically for the benefit of (RED) in the battle against AIDS). Even when they were on hiatus, they didn’t mind getting together for Christmas and record a jingle. This year is no different, with a cover of Bing Crosby’s ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’ that opens with a three-minute narration and features Flowers’ fourth grade teacher, Ned Humphrey Hansen.
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She & Him – “Christmas Memories

It’s also now tradition for She & Him (aka Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward) to do a Christmas record annually. This year, they’ve released the album ‘Christmas Party’, which is full of festive standards like ‘Let It Snow’, ‘Winter Wonderland’ and this cover of ‘Christmas Memories’. The track has previously been released by Barbra Streisand and jazz singer Rosemary Clooney, and the pair’s version is as poised and classy as you’d expect.
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Fiona Apple –The Christmas Song (Trump’s Nuts Roasting On An Open Fire)’

We talked about this one before. Check that article out here. Singer-songwriter Fiona Apple has gone all political with her take on Nat King Cole’s 1946 ‘The Christmas Song’. Shared a month after Donald Trump won the US election, her version is both hilarious and frightening.
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Low – “Some Hearts (At Christmas Time)’

‘Some Hearts (At Christmas Time)’ is a new frosty beauty that will have you reaching for the wine glass and possibly doing a little silent cry too, thanks to this 90s dreampop band.
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The Melvins – “Carol of the Bells”

Part of Amazon’s annual ‘Indie For The Holidays’ compilation, the US alt.rock band The Melvins covered this 1914 song that’s been featured every over the past century. It’s a good choice for the group – the original is pretty creepy as Christmas songs go and they go to hell for leather to add some fury to that feeling. “The song has scared us since we were children, that’s why we wanted to do it,” King Buzzo has explained of their motives behind covering it.

Best Coast – “Christmas and Everyday

Indie darling Bethany Cosentino goes full on ’60s girl-group pop on this track taken from Amazon’s original new kids’ series special An American Girl Story – Maryellen 1955: Extraordinary Christmas. Cosentino has said the song should serve as a reminder to “our youth and young girls that they are strong and capable of achieving whatever they set their minds to – on Christmas and EVERY day”.

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