Flannelgraph Records has compiled thirteen wonderful instrumentals on a digital album titled The Holidays Don’t Have to Be So Rotten. Soundtrack worthy instrumentals in the style of indie-electro, dorm rock, the album gives a very introspective take on the festive season. Some of the tracks seem especially prepped for headphone listening while traveling, reminiscing, regretting, regressing, or rejoicing over being reunited with family and friends. That travelogue soundtrack feel comes especially on the ambient noise/sound effect laden “Window 7 (From Wonderland To Braintree On The MBTA)” by Drekka, kind of the dark, melancholic undertone/backstory of the Smiths’ “London.” That travel rhythm also appears through the tracks by Memory Map, Mike Adams At His Honest Weight, Foxhole, and Soporus.
You won’t find much here that specifically recalls holiday tunes, although Eli Moore’s synth-bounced “Christmas” does conjure up memories of the ways that Christmas songs have been played (plagued) in many styles. There’s an air of the traditional in the guitar-led “A Cologne Christmas” by Frank Schweikhardt which continues through the dose of strings on “A Manger on Sylvia Street” by the Parade Schedule. B C N C’s “The Christmas to End All Christmases” comes at the Nativity theme through a Galaxie 500-like guitar. Finally, sleigh bells provide the rhythm foundation for Sleeping Bag’s “A Personal Voyage” (another travelogue song).
“Behind the Curve” might be more in line with swaggering New Year’s Eve parties, while Michael James Tapscott’s “The Last Nazi Christmas in Buenos Aires” is as creepy as the title.
The album closes with “Christmas, Miles Away,” an accordion-drenched ballad that aches for some Christmas either in memory or that we’ll never quite get (emphasized by the audio clips from It’s a Wonderful Life).
The Holidays Don’t Have to Be So Rotten
Flannelgraph Records
