Review Summary: Christmas music for those who despise Christmas music.
The bane of every retail worker in America, other than the guy who insists that his purchase is free if a product won't scan properly, is the Christmas shopping season. The perpetual barrage of irate customers during an absurdly long shift can make even the most veteran employee buckle under pressure. On top of that, the playlist that runs through the entire month of December at every single place of business consists exclusively of ten Christmas songs repeated ad-nauseum day after day, serving as an oddly fitting soundtrack to the month most loathed by store clerks across the country. It's enough to make one turn into a scrooge, hoping they never have to hear holiday-themed music again.
There are a few select albums, however, that have managed to escape the collective hate of cashiers and remain on the list of December favorites. The Vince Guaraldi Trio's soundtrack to
A Charlie Brown Christmas comes to mind immediately; on the heavier side of the spectrum, Trans-Siberian Orchestra have been one of the few major players to bring an edge to winter. And in 2013, another, very surprising band entered the fray: Bad Religion. Their EP, entitled simply
Christmas Songs, came fresh off the heels of the LP ‘True North’, and while it's only 9 songs long, it brought a fresh take on Christmas to the table.
Christmas Songs, while being Bad Religion's first official holiday-themed release, is not the band's first foray into singing religious hymns. At various points throughout their career, unofficial recordings have surfaced of them performing tongue-in-cheek version of holiday favorites; examples include a version of the "The First Noel" entitled "Leon," their version of "Joy To the World," which lead singer Greg Graffin performed with a tone of voice some might call "holier-than-thou," and "God Rest You Geri- Mentalmen," Bad Religion's version of "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen," sung to the tune of the band's own song, "The Answer." This EP is just as cheeky, if not more so. While listening to "White Christmas," one can’t help but notice the blatant similarity to the Ramones classic, "I Wanna Be Sedated"...as though Bad Religion is expressing exactly what people think when subjected to Christmas music. While listening to "Little Drummer Boy," notice the clever use of the domineering drums from the intro to Dead Kennedys' "California Uber Alles," a song about a politician theoretically rising to power and the Orwellian regime that would follow. Add to that the fact that the album ends with a new version of one of the band's most popular (and socially critical) songs, "American Jesus," and that the proceeds from sales went to a charity created to aid those abused by priests, and you have what could be called one of the most anti-Christmas Christmas albums ever released.
Aside from the snark and sarcasm, though, the songs themselves are just fun to listen to. All too often, Christmas albums released by popular artists nowadays are simply a way fulfill contractual obligations to their record labels, and are devoid of any actual enjoyment for the performer or the listener. This isn’t an issue with
Christmas Songs; a member of Bad Religion OWNS the label they're on, and so the band releasing a Christmas album is purely the result of the band deciding they wanted to do so. It's easy to see they had fun with rearranging each song to fit their once-unique brand of punk, and while most of the songs don't stray too far from their familiar melodies, any fan of rock should be able to appreciate the effort the band put into the album enough to give it a spin long after the Christmas Spirit has left them.
