Although it's virtually impossible to avoid the commercial crush of the festive season these days, especially with the department stores employing their unspoken motto - 'KIDS BACK TO SCHOOL, WHEEL OUT THE CRACKERS AND DECORATIONS' - come September, here's something that helps to restore the purity, innocence and wonder we should be feeling at this time of year.
With their usual ultra-funereal slo-core, Minnesota trio LOW wouldn't automatically spring to mind along with visions of plum pudding and drinking yourself readily comatose, but their simply-titled "CHRISTMAS" is without question WHISPERINANDHOLLERIN's top tip for a fulfilling yuletide.
Thing is, it's impossible to deny the absolute sincerity behind this beautiful mini-album. For starters, as devoutly religious believers, Mormon couple Alan Sparhawk (guitar/ vocals) and Mimi Parker (drums/vocals) plus friend Zak Sally on bass really mean every word. And boy, does it shine through.
Original opening song,"Just Like Christmas" wrongfoots anyone expecting LOW's typical deathly slow shiver, floating in on a bed of kettle drums, sleigh bells, Mimi's gorgeous vocal and draggin a rockabilly shuffle in its' wake. Ostensibly about a journey home for Xmas from Scandinavia, it's unexpectedly 'up' and sets the scene for the jewels soon to be paraded.
"Long Way Around The Sea" if anything betters it. Returning to a more traditional LOW soundscape' it recounts the journey taken by The Three Wise Men to view the birth of Christ with an unbelievably delicate poise over the sparsest of acoustic strums. Lovely in the extreme.
Maybe even more revelatory are the three covers here. "Little Drummer Boy","Blue Christmas" and even "Silent Night" have previously fallen to their knees through overkill, but in LOW's hands are remoulded as objects of supreme desire; "Little Drummer Boy" particularly surprising, nestling inside its' new Velvets-y drone backdrop and "Blue christmas" again benefitting from Mimi's unadorned voice and subtle ghost jazz sensurround that probably only the COWBOY JUNKIES could equal.
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And we haven't even got to the none-more spooked apres Xmas blues of "Taking Down The Tree" yet, purveying to perfection the secret disappointment we all suffer when thoae baubles get thrown back into the attic for another 12 months.
Then finally "One Special Gift", which acts as a particularly downcast post-script. Here, Parker's voice almost dies altogether and Sparhawk's solitary guitar virtually re-invents the term "sparse."
Appearing for the first time for Xmas 1999, "Christmas" still sounds like the only thing to play at this time of year. Tinged with an unconditional sense of wonder, LOW - after already weighing in with two of the year's best in the DIRTY THREE collaboration "IN THE FISHTANK" and their own masterpiece,"Things We Lost In The Fire" - make us acutely aware that December 25th should be about far more than turkey and trying to avoid relatives. How cool an achievement is that?
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