Amazon.co.uk Review
To the casual observer, the holidays are the happiest, jolliest time of the year: the blinking lights, the merry carols, the parties, the good cheer on every street corner and in every shop. However, the statistics tell us that, for many, the holidays are the time of year when depression reaches its annual peak. It is for these people, then, that American slow-core three-piece Low have released Christmas, their collection of heartbreakingly downbeat holiday songs. The eight songs on this mini album are a mix of new compositions--"If You Were Born Today", the sparkling "Just Like Christmas"--and traditional favourites--"Silent Night" and their sublime take on "Little Drummer Boy". Their version of Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" is particularly gorgeous: Mimi Parker's vocals drawing out the pain of holiday loneliness over the sparsest of arrangements, the whole thing sounding like Mazzy Star on tranquilisers. This is not an album for festive gatherings; rather, it's the perfect escape from the mania of the season. Quietly compelling, touching and, above all, perhaps the most moving and sincere Christmas album you're likely to hear. --Robert Burrow
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 It's Christmas time..., 2002-12-11
I first heard Just Like Christmas on Marc&Lard's Radio 1 show in the late 1990's- this lead me to this divine e.p. (and albums like Secret Name, which features such mindblowing songs as Two Step & Immune). This is the album to play after Phil Spector's collection, Jesus Christ by Big Star, Last Dance by The Cure & Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley (feel I've forgotten an American Music Club song...)- a reminder that Xmas can be a heartbreaking time: how it never measures up to the memory of those that have passed, how it is set in the darkest winter, how the seasonal affects, how people come together over the barcode rather than out of common decency,how archaic notions such as faith appear somewhat absurd in a world where people are going to be turned to mincemeat in the New Year over oil , how many people commit suicide etc (god, I'm sounding like Ingmar Bergman after listening to the Joy Division boxset). Well, this is the ideal music for all that (and more...)Low compose half this release- the gorgeous Just Like Christmas (Sunday Morning meets the Carpenters in heaven); Long Way Around the Sea (as sparse as Starfire); Alan stays on vocals for If You Were Born Today with its heartfelt "Joy to the world" & the final track One Special Gift (a sense of foreboding when this one ends). The remaining songs are well known Xmas songs- the version of Little Drummer Boy recalls My Bloody Valentine's Glider, while the cover of Elvis's Blue Christmas is as great as Cowboy Junkies Blue Moon Revisted (on the classic Trinity Sessions album). Silent Night recalls the sparse acoustics of Nick Drake and Robert Wyatt, Mimi & Alan's voices coming together (recall The Smiths's Asleep- an ode to suicide ends with this tune also). The final track is Taking Down the Tree, which evokes the happysad emotions of Xmas and the sense that the seasons move on regardless: "seems before it's over it's begun". Low's Christmas is an album that HAS to be owned at this price and one of those releases you will be guaranteed to come back to at least once a year. Divine stuff...
Too beautiful to stay awake too, 2006-11-15
Even my mum was bowled over by the beauty of the tracks on this albumn - it has been the back drop to some of the most wonderful Christmas days we have ever had. If you ever wanted 'something more' out of Christmas, then put this on once you're full up of turkey and pudding.
For Christmas Past Present and Future, 2007-12-24
Christmas again - what better time to review Low's superb festive album which portrays a more common Christmas experience for many than the forced jollity of your Slade or Wizzard mega-hit.
This eight-track CD is a beauty. Four original Low songs show great variety - from the pure pop of `Just Like Christmas' with its sleigh bells ringing to the hauntingly spiritual telling of the Nativity in `Long Way Around the Sea'.
The cover versions of old (roast) chestnuts are simply inspired. `Silent Night' has wonderfully simple acoustic arrangement whilst `Little Drummer Boy' has never sounded like this before. It is drenched in guitar reverb and feedback a la My Bloody Valentine but is incredibly moving.
`Christmas' obviously has special resonance at this time of year but the CD can be enjoyed as much in July as December. It is by turns melancholy, thoughtful, reflective and beautiful. Can you ask for more for Christmas?
Just Like Christmas - All year round, 2004-09-24
Oh, the pain of christmas - you can't help thinking that the music perenially droning in the shops and incessantly on Radio and TV helps to explain why Christmas is the season of the year with the highest rate of suicide. Low's 'Christmas', on the other hand, like Spector's 'Christmas Album' is music to warm your soul instead - an absurdly cheap mini-CD which is one of Low's most pure, self-contained and poignant efforts. Their original compositions here are all full of such emptional depth and a haunting, childlike innocence and honesty - no other band on this planet could produce a jaunty, sleigh-bell driven singalong like 'Just Like Christmas' without being laughed off the face of the earth. The traditionals are just beautiful: 'Little Drummer Boy', with it's slowed down wall of distorted guitar and thumping drum set against perfectly levelled vocals is an absolute gem and 'Silent Night'- a simple vocal (Alan and Mimi in total intuitive harmony) and acoustic version of this tired standard, is turned into a thing of pure majesty. Likewise, their drastic revision of "Elvis's" 'Blue Christmas' retains the spirit (not the schmaltz)of the original, but takes on a whole other dimension with the minimalistic instrumentation and Mimi's almost sultry vocals. There's more - but you should really hear it yourself. To be fair, most of Low's CDs leave their listeners only partially won over (some tracks appeal instantly, whilst others just don't resonate with people) but for me, 'Christmas' captures the essence and spirit (and I guess, spirituality) of Low at their absolute best on every single track here - vocal perfection, stark, austere instrumentation, and that special sound (shared in spirit, with the likes of Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Jesus & Mary Chain, Big Star, Joy Division, Brian Wilson and Phil Spector) that hits you in the head and the heart. Put it this way: any Christmas LP that you want to play (and which still sounds good) in August is got to be worth having. And I've had this for a few years now too...
A glimpse of Christmas when it meant something., 2003-10-08
You know, do you ever feel at Christmas times, that you are deeply unhappy with how things are, and you long for a nostalgic glimpse at when Christmas meant something to people?
Please buy this record - it has got me through the last three Christmasses, and I can foresee my reliance on it continuing for the next ten (until appocalypse).
It'll make you sad, though...
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