christmas-stick

12 New Holiday Songs Released This Week

The holidays are upon us, and whether you’re feeling festive or not, musicians are climbing aboard the holiday bandwagon with new songs for the season. We offer to you a week’s worth of them, nestled in one place, like gifts under a tree.

BUBBLE & SQUEAK (GIRL RAY/BOY LEAST LIKELY TO) – “THE CHRISTMAS STICK”

Last year, Girl Ray released a genuinely terrific Christmas song, and chief songwriter Poppy Harrington has done it again, this time teaming with Jof from The Boy Least Likely To. “The Christmas Stick” is a real charmer.

GURR FT. EDDIE ARGOS – CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY

Need more indiepop holiday music? Here’s UK group Gurr who’ve teamed with Art Brut’s Eddie Argos for this poppy, new wave garage punk jammer. “We’re on a Christmas Holiday but you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”

JOSH HOMME – “SILENT NIGHT” (ft. CW STONEKING) & “‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS” (ft. BRODY DALLE)

Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme is back with two Christmas covers, a crackling, bluesy take on “Silent Night” featuring Australian blues musician C.W. Stoneking and a reading of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” with Distillers frontman Brody Dalle (who Josh is married to) and “their three little elves.”

ROBYN – “LAST CHRISTMAS”

Robyn is everywhere again, with a great new album and a big tour coming up next year. To get in the holiday spirit, she covered the Wham! classic “Last Christmas,” and she eschewed her usual dance-pop approach in favor of quieter piano pop for this one. She debuted it on BBC Radio 1, and she also called Wham!’s late George Michael her “hero” before playing it.

CJ RAMONE – “CHRISTMAS LULLABY” & “FATHER CHRISTMAS”

As promised, ’80s/’90s Ramones bassist CJ Ramone is back today with two Christmas songs, an original and a cover of The Kinks’ “Father Christmas.” As you probably expected, they’re done in that classic Ramones fashion, with CJ doing his best Joey impression. If you like the Ramones’ own Christmas classic, you’ll probably like these too.

CONFIDENCE MAN – “SANTA’S COMIN’ DOWN THE CHIMNEY”

Australia’s ridiculous and ridiculously catchy Confidence Man released one of 2018’s most fun albums and now they’ve delivered one of the cheekiest holiday songs of the season. Was innuendo on your list this year? Your wish has come true.

TAKEN BY TREES – “HOLIDAY”

Taken By Trees has released an original holiday song, and though it’s got sleigh bells and Christmasy shimmers, it’s not all holiday cheer. Victoria Bergsman says: “When I wrote the lyrics for Holiday I was very upset. I was upset about Trump winning in the elections. I remembered I changed the lyrics from how they were originally, I was very angry when I started writing them and I came back to them and felt I wanted to make them less angry and add some hope and comfort. The song is telling a story of sadness and despair but finding a way out of it, at least for the moment. I am still upset, but I can feel some hope around me.”

SAY SUE ME – “CHRISTMAS, IT’S NOT A BIGGIE”

For a lot of people the holidays are stressful, but not for surf-inspired South Korean combo Say Sue Me.

JONWAYNE – YULETIDE BANGERZ

Rapper/producer Jonwayne has released a holiday-themed beat album called Yuletide Bangerz, where he chops up classic Christmas songs and makes head-nodding rap beats out of them, with some seasonally appropriate spoken-word samples thrown in as well.

STEADY HOLIDAY – “CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE” (VINCE GUARALDI COVER)

Los Angeles musician Dre Babinski takes on this classic from the A Charlie Brown Christmas sountrack, giving it a dreamy feel to fit with her other material as Steady Holiday. “I’ve taken a lot of cues from Christmas music in my own songwriting,” she says. “It’s nostalgic, transporting, melancholy, sometimes delusional. Whatever the emotion, the feeling of Christmas music is instantaneous and earnest, which is a framework I like to start with when I sit down to write.”

Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs’ archive and our “Holiday Music” category.