Tracks - page 47

Happy New Year folks!

Too much partying leads to forgetfulness… looks like I failed to post yesterday. Not to worry, this song is beautiful enough to cover two days.

I make it twee o’clock. Time, then, for Pete Waterman’s favourite band: the 1999 Brit Awards gate-crashing Belle & Sebastian.

No more winter. If only…

I hope, like me, you had a wonderful Christmas. This one is for anyone who wasn’t so fortunate.

Seems appropriate to pluck this out of the vault today. Merry Christmas!

And on the reverse? Perhaps something from Birkenhead’s Half Man Half Biscuit - a national treasure some would say, who? everyone else would ask - riffing on the oft overlooked frustrations of a childhood wasted...

Two sides of an 80s coin: this, perhaps represents the obverse side - the 1980s of which The Futureheads speak so fondly. The snow certainly is deep; as deep as the hair is beautiful. With...

Was the snow really deeper in the 80s? I'm not so sure.

The tree is up, lit up, baubled and straight. More or less, anyway. So take it away Perry, and watch out for interrupting carollers.

Here’s the late, great Andy Williams in a TV spot that looks like it’s being colourised in real-time by an excitable child.

It’s a mark of Aimee Mann’s songwriting craft that a song can include the words “Merry Christmas” this many times, and at the same time be so very unmerry. Enjoy! (and then go and buy...

The only downside to Sufjan Stevens’ prodigiously epic Christmas output is that you sometimes have to pan through incidental instrumentals and throwaway studio jams to find the stunning highlights.

Today’s pick: an unusually sprightly number from Low’s 1999 Christmas EP.

Not quite perfectly accurate: England’s brilliant white covering has faded to grey this past week, with skies the colour of the roads. The early morning countryside frost was a surprising and beautiful sight nonetheless.

And back to the schmaltzier side of the festive season, with a reunion fantasy from regular collaborators Tim Wheeler and Emmy The Great.

In which a WWII soldier, writing to his family back home, tells them he’ll be home for Christmas, adding poignantly: “if only in my dreams”.

I bet you can’t guess which 2012 Christmas album a cover of this song appears on. Anyone? Anyone?

Oh, look! Another song covered by Tracy Thorn on Tinsel & Lights, and another song I didn’t even realise was a cover. Shows how much attention I’ve been paying to White Stripes album tracks lately…...

Having first heard Hard Candy Christmas via Tracey Thorn's album Tinsel and Lights, it was something of a surprise when I found out it was written by Carol Hall for The Best Little Whorehose in...