Holiday Cheer: Annie The Clumsy’s Merry Little Christmas From My Messy Room

ByPatrick St. Michel

Getting older has resulted in a lot of changes in my behavior the 21-year-old me would recoil in terror at – I sometimes like wearing suits, for example, and love sushi (21-year-old me could barely eat pizza with vegetables on it, yet alone sushi). But he would be most distressed by how much I’ve come to enjoy Christmas music. I was eating dinner at a curry restaurant tonight, and found my foot tapping along with the piped-in music. Then I realized it was a smooth-jazz piano cover of “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” I bobbed my head along to “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” as it played at my workplace. Younger me is sobbing into his Wolf Parade album while wondering why nobody wants to go on a date with him.

I like this current version of me, now, and it has allowed me to enjoy Annie The Clumsy’s little Christmas album, Merry Little Christmas From My Messy Room. She takes a break from the double entendres and subversive ukulele music she’s been releasing this year to record a straightforward, lovely little EP of Christmas songs. You get “Santa Baby” – which works well with the style she’s shown off this year – “Winter Wonderland” and a gather-round-the-fireplace-and-feel-good take on “The Christmas Song.” Let’s all embrace the holidays…and listen to this. Listen below, or get it here.

Similar Posts

  • Youth Genius (NOKIES! Solo-Member Project)

    ByPatrick St. Michel

    関西のロックバンド、NOKIES!がデビューフルアルバム、”Between The Blinks”をFlake Recordsとタワーレコードからリリースしました。Los Campesinos!のようなインディーポップが特徴的な彼等でしたが、今作品では良い意味で幅広い層から好かれそうな雰囲気。タワーレコードからのリリースも違和感なく、これからバンドはどんどんメインストリームなロックバンドとして成長していきそうですが、ボーカルのクメユウスケはそのような方向性とは違ったものをYouth Genius(Youth LagoonとPerfume Geniusの融合みたいな感じかな？）として表現しています。 Soundcloudには、”All of the songs is inspired by peculiar atomosphere created by the streets and youth of Kyoto city,”(京都の若者やストリートが持つ独特な空気感が楽曲に影響を与えている。)と書かれているのですが、その通り京都の若者達は個性的なスタイルを表現していて、Youth Lagoonは少しばかりのエレクトロ要素を持つインディーポップと、跳ねるようなファンクを融合していて、哀愁とワイルドさのバランスを上手く保っています。”Explains”は直球勝負なインディーポップで、センターに配置されたキーボードがとても良い存在感。”Behind You”と”Stay Above The Clouds”は多くの打ち込みが使われていて、今年に国内でリリースされたインディーポップの中でも特に目立っています。そして”We Keep Kissing”はクラブ的アノラックサウンドが、The Brixton Academyが本気を出してダンサブルな楽曲を作ったかのような印象。Youth Geniusみたいなプロジェクトがあることで、NOKIES!の方向性もどんどん進化していきそうですね。

  • Super Star Shore Trip: Slow Beach (Featuring Kai Takahashi, Twangy Twangy) Release Lover Lover

    ByPatrick St. Michel

    Slow Beach are a Japanese indie-pop supergroup of sorts – they feature Kai Takahashi and Twangy Twagny (a.k.a. Dai Ogasawara), but find both of them making surf-leaning music (see – the name). They’ve released their first album, called Lover Lover and you can get it for free here. Go do that! I’ll write more on…

  • |

    New Especia: “We Are Especia ~ Naki Nagara Dancing”

    ByPatrick St. Michel

    Note: This will be the final regular update around these parts for a bit…starting tomorrow (hopefully!) we will share MBM’s top 20 Japanese albums of the year. And then we will go on a vacation where posts will be more infrequent. Fittingly, we end with Especia. Osaka idol outfit Especia – who take cues from…

  • |

    Days Of Homemade J-Pop: Hisamokuden-Kow’s A Desktop Museum

    ByPatrick St. Michel

    Rare are the times when you stumble across a SoundCloud or Bandcamp page unironically tagging itself as J-Pop. Even rarer…finding an earnest stab at the outright poppy through these sites that isn’t terrible. There are certainly exceptions – everything on Maltine that goes by that, mostly – but try spending some time with that tag….