THE MORNING LIST
A few days before the Christmas holidays, we offer you a selection of songs and new albums that evoke this period, whether with originals, for some specially designed for this 2022 vintage, covers of classics of the genre, from hymns , traditional or more recently written and composed tunes.
« Wonderful Christmastime », par Kadhja Bonet
Composed in 1979 by Paul McCartney and released as a single in mid-November, Wonderful Christmastime was one of the big Christmas song hits that year. The former Beatles, then head of Wings, whose what would be the group’s final album was released in June, Back To The Egg, was working on a solo album, the future McCartney II. The singer Kadhja Bonet offers a more minimalist version than the original, in an EP released in early December by the phonographic company Ninja Tune with six Christmas songs (covers and one of her compositions), California Holiday. Electric piano, bass, claps and tambourine with discreet bells accompany the warm, soft voice of the Californian singer and multi-instrumentalist. S. Si.
« Yuletide and I’ll Tide With Yann », de Maxwell Farrington
The Christmas record, a curious – even often kitsch – object remains an almost unavoidable tradition for any Anglo-Saxon pop musician, from Mariah Carey to Bob Dylan. The second solo album by Australian crooner – and Breton by adoption – Maxwell Farrington could well reconcile us with it. The singer of the rock group Dewaere had already surprised in 2021 with Once (Talitres), an imperial pop collaboration orchestrated by the Superlobard. Rather than serving us the usual solstice covers, the chef – in real life – concocted us in Yuletide and I’ll Tide With Yann (Upton Park) only original songs, sixteen titles recorded with the complicity of Guingampais Yann Ollivier (ex-The Craftmen Club).
The spontaneous approach, alternating refined folk, bluegrass and synthetic pop (On and Onwith a very heady beat), allows us to take a step back from the exercise in style, not without an absurd humor sometimes worthy of Philippe Katerine (Have You Counted All The Presents Under the Tree ?). But it is once again the voice of Stentor de Farrington which makes all the difference, on the vertiginous Auld Lang Syne et Feel My Nose. Mrs C
« Ain’t no Chimneys in The Projects », par Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
A major purveyor of Christmas songs, the soul repertoire can celebrate their religious or festive dimension, without forgetting sometimes to slip a social message into these sweets. Like this title recalling that it “there are no chimneys in the cities” ghettos. Recorded in 2013, sip of brass evoking the soul and rhythm’n’blues of the 1960s, the song is carried by the vocal power of Sharon Jones (1956-2016). Originally forged in a gospel choir in South Carolina, her voice was only able to express itself later, after an existence of odd jobs (security guard, prison guard, etc.) allowing her to survive. At New York.
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