Punk Goes Christmas (2013)

1. New Found Glory - "Nothing For Christmas"
2. All Time Low - "Fool's Holiday"
3. Real Friends - "I Had A Heart"
4. Man Overboard - "Father Christmas"
5. The Summer Set - "This Christmas"
6. Crown The Empire - "There Will Be No Christmas"
7. Yellowcard - "Christmas Lights"
8. Issues - "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays"
9. Jason Lancaster - "All I Can Give You"
10. The Ready Set - "I Don't Wanna Spend Another Christmas Without You"
11. Set It Off - "This Christmas (I'll Burn It To The Ground)"
12. William Beckett - "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

As Christmas albums go, the more punk the better… probably. Okay, so besides Punk Goes Christmas and the Bad Religion Christmas album there are few examples, especially this year. In fact, rock Christmas records are a rare thing to come by in general, and when they do, it’s Corey Taylor or Ozzy Osbourne or The Darkness, and punk has nowhere to stay for the night. This year is different, these carol singers are different, although their Christmas songs may raise just as many eyebrows.

Still, as strange a concept as this might be, it actually starts off pretty festive. New Found Glory break out the jingle bells like a ska band would break out the trumpets and ‘Nothing For Christmas,’ though it sounds more like Yellowcard than any traditional Christmas songs, is as close as NFG have come to making a stocking filler, except, well, auditory. And it doesn’t stop there. All Time Low’s ‘Fool’s Holiday’ might just be one of the best things they’ve ever done, but perhaps that’s the mulled wine talking. Exaggeration or no, it’s utterly delightful.

It would be apt to say that this record was full of surprises if it were not a surprise in itself that the record works at all. It does, it really feels Christmas-y, and this is from a collection of artists that are usually as far removed from Christmas songs as Cliff Richard is removed from good Christmas songs.

Having mentioned them in relation to the NFG track on this record, it’s only fitting to mention the Yellowcard contribution: ‘Christmas Lights,’ which is honestly beautiful. Yellowcard have been known to pull the odd tear jerker from time to time, and perhaps it’s the holiday season sentimentality, but it looks like they’ve done it again.

This album is not what you might think it is. Sure, it’s a novelty, the title alone tells you that much, but the music is not a novelty itself, it’s genuinely lovely, and that’s not something you get from many Christmas albums, nor from the vast majority of punk records. As ridiculous as this might sound, this is really something for the artists to be proud of. --- Edward Strickson, alterthepress.com

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