Christmas is a time to sing!! 2025

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Mendalla

Mendalla

Happy headbanging ape!!
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Guess it's time for a Christmas music thread. Advent starts this coming Sunday and there's already some new Christmas material out from various artists. Plus, of course, we can always post our favourites. Religious and secular are both welcome.

To kick off, Laufey did not release a new Christmas EP this year but did add a couple tracks to A Very Laufey Holiday from last year. Given her jazz-pop style, she's almost a shoe-in for doing Christmas albums.

With the new tracks comes this absolutely cute video for her version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town". That's her dancing and Junia, her twin, on the piano.


Christmas Magic is a Laufey original, written by her and her producer/co-writer.

 
A Christmas song from a band called "Dance of Death"? Yeah, metal gets fun sometimes. Their actual name is the Latin Saltatio Mortis but that's the English meaning. The band is German and part of the "medieval metal" genre. Their contribution to Christmas is this rather humourous take on Santa as ... A VIKING!! (hey, he comes from the North, right?)

 
"Father Christmas" by the late Greg Lake stands as one of the greatest rock Christmas songs period and as one of the few Christmas songs to come out of prog rock. And it is now 50 years old, first released in 1975. I can't even tell you when I first heard the song, only that I was ten that year and I have been hearing this song for a very long time. This animated video for the song was made to celebrate the anniversary.

 
I've been seriously suffering Xmas music fatigue, given that I work in retail. There are so many bad covers of so many bad songs. Sentimentally vapid at best, morally suspect at least (Mommy kissing Santa, said Santa spying on every child, his reindeers running over a grandmother, the womsn trapped by the snowstorm). The person who wrote about giving their heart away last Christmas should be interred with their own heart impaled by a sterlling silver stake.

That, @Waterfall, was the first pop music one that's resonated in me for a while. Thank you. I think of Northwind, my beloved hound Lucy dying just before Xmas last year, my dear old friend Barb on the same date the year before. My Mom died on a New Year's Eve. I enjoy what I can, and I do what I can to celebrate. For me it's about the return of the sun.
 
BetteTheRed said:
The person who wrote about giving their heart away last Christmas should be interred with their own heart impaled by a sterlling silver stake.
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Actually, he's dead. On Christmas Day, no less. It was George Michael of Wham. I am not fond of the song either but the guy was a hell of a successful performer and songwriter who left us waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too soon.
 
I figured we would get some seasonal music from Voces8 eventually. Here it is, a new arrangement of "Gabriel's Message" by their arranger-in-residence Jim Clements. Since it deals with Gabriel's visit to Mary to tell her about Jesus' coming birth, it's more Advent than Christmas so this is probably the perfect time to post it.

 
Mendalla said:
I figured we would get some seasonal music from Voces8 eventually. Here it is, a new arrangement of "Gabriel's Message" by their arranger-in-residence Jim Clements. Since it deals with Gabriel's visit to Mary to tell her about Jesus' coming birth, it's more Advent than Christmas so this is probably the perfect time to post it.

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Just beautiful!

(The women with the long blond hair looks like Trump's press secretary.)
 
Waterfall said:
Just beautiful!

(The women with the long blond hair looks like Trump's press secretary.)
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LOL. I forget her name. She just started as the new first soprano. She's got big shoes to fill. Andrea Haines, her predecessor, held that position for over a decade, IIRC.
 
KayTheCurler said:
They sing it far better than we did at school!. many years ago (or was it something similar?).
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It's been popular for a long time. Sting even recorded it and had, IIRC, a video out for it. So you probably did sing it, though obviously not this arrangment which is new for Voces8.
 
Home Free are an all-male a capella vocal group (though they add a nice trumpet solo to the first song below) who are always a shoo-in for some Christmas music. They lean a bit to a country inflection but are pretty diverse in their sound. Here's a couple from this year.


 
Swedish musician and singer Tommy Johansson is an incredible talent, whether in his band Majestica or solo. He's one of the best guitarists in modern metal and packs an amazing high male voice as a singer. Besides performing, he's also a songwriter and arranger who has worked with other artists. I first heard him when he backed Floor Jansen (he was in a band with her husband at the time) on some of her covers during the pandemic. His weekly covers are starting to turn in a Christmas-y direction, starting with this rock arrangement of Stille Nacht (yes, in the original German).

 
Luce NDs said:
The only place to sing is in the shower to damper the yowls ...
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Ah, so your voice is about as good as mine then. :rolleyes: :ROFLMAO: I think that's why I appreciate good singers so much. Though I've been experimenting with death metal growls and that kind of, sort of works. But not great for singing in, say, church. :LOL:
 
Christmas music of the day is a piano version of "Carol of the Bells" with orchestral backing. Pianist is Lola Astanova (original given name is Ludmilla, Lola is a stage name), a Russian who was born in Tashkent in the former USSR (now part of Uzbekistan) and has lived in the US since she was seventeen. She's an incredible pianist and puts out videos on her channel for both classical and popular works.

 
Is a Bell like a dead ringer just hanging there in open air ... no Eire to it? Options? Circle your desire ... place an initial said the RE Agent!
 
From child actor to rock star, Taylor Momsen has had quite a journey and she's still only 32. At seven years of age, she played Cindy Lou Who in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" opposite Jim Carrey. In that movie, she sang "Where are You Christmas?" This Christmas, her band The Pretty Reckless dropped a Christmas-themed EP and one of the songs on it is a rocked up arrangement of the song, opening with a clip of her original performance. The video dropped today and it is a work of beauty. It opens with Taylor watching her appearance on Leno to promote the film as her seven-year-old self sings, then the outro has adult Taylor singing the original arrangement to a piano accompaniment. In between, she rips into the band's new rock version.

 
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