Never let it be said that the anti-corporate rock wags in English-Welsh indie band Swansea Sound, whose recently released LP Twentieth Century is pure melodic punk-infused bliss and will make your stereo very happy, don’t partake in the Holiday spirit of giving.
The band’s Skep Wax Label has released a wonderful three-song Holiday-themed single, which is available as a CD inside a special Christmas card designed by Catrin Saran James. And they’ve decided to put a temporary halt to their boycott of streaming services in order to donate the resulting streaming revenue to the truly needy—namely the ten highest-earning artists on Spotify. To quote Swansea Sound songwriter and bassist Rob Pursey, who with Swansea Sound vocalist/keyboardist Amelia Fletcher runs Skep Wax, “At this special time of the year it feels right to help Spotify in its mission to redistribute money to the rich. Happy Christmas.”
I plan to buy it, but not in the spirit of giving—I’ve already sent Taylor Swift, as I do every Christmas, a $100 dollar check to help her defray the rental costs on the 100,000 square feet warehouse she uses to store her collection of priceless Madonna artifacts—but because the songs are great. A-Side “Santa Bail Me Out” is pure indie punk bliss with a humorous message. Frontman Hue Williams (of Pooh Sticks fame) does the crooning, backed by the heavenly vocals of Fletcher, which were instrumental in making her former bands Heavenly (who still reunite on occasion) and Talulah Gosh well, so heavenly.
The storyline is all hope and cheer—you want Santa Claus to climb down your chimney because he’s your only hope of climbing out of debt. “Write a friendly beggar note,” sings Williams, “Leave it by the fire/With some cheap red wine,” then “Hope for Santa Claus/With a nice windfall/Cuz he’s got really friendly rates/Sign your name right here/Force some festive cheer/Ah, ah, Santa bail me out.” In short, jolly Kris Kringle is the best loan shark north of the South Pole, and could just spare you the indignity of having the friendly neighborhood slumlord kick you to the curb like a still tinsel-strewn post-Yuletide Christmas tree.
“The Life We Led” is a luscious and bittersweet song with a groovy guitar riff and a Mamas and Papas feel. In it a lovelorn Williams looks back wistfully at Christmas Eves past: “Once more round the Christmas tree/Once more up to bed,” he sings, before delivering the wonderfully sad lines, “One blanket over two/’It’s cozy,’ you said.” It’s poignant enough to make your heart grow not one or two even but three times larger, just like the one that beats in the heart of that Grinch fellow. And while Williams sings, “Maybe it’s better now/Maybe we are free” you don’t believe him for a North Pole minute.
The single’s third song is a masterstroke in the form of a Welsh version of “The Life We Led” called “Nadolilg, Pwy A Wyr?”. It’s sung by the multi-talented Catrin Saran James, whose ethereal vocals aren’t just lovely, they’re downright supernatural, and bring back in uncanny detail the Christmas Eves I never spent in Wales as a child, eating slabs of tooth-breaking toffee before heading off to Plygain services and then wassailing with the Mari Lwyd. Which if I understand correctly has something to do with a creepy cloaked person walking about town with a horse skull on a pole and frankly sounds Midsommer scary to me.
But we all have our Holiday traditions, and if you’re a giving and caring person and not a parsimonious dick you’ll want to make buying multiple copies of Swansea Sound’s Christmas single and giving them to your friends part of yours. I can guarantee they’ll be happier if you show up at their door with a copy of “Santa Bail Me Out” than they’ll be if you come a knocking with a horse skull on a pole. I tried that last year, and took a few festive Yuletide thrashings for my trouble.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
