The holidays are upon us, and whether you’re feeling festive or not, musicians are climbing aboard the tinsel bandwagon with new songs for the season. We offer to you a week’s worth of them, nestled in one place, like gifts under a tree. In this case, as its our first roundup of the season, we'll be going back a little further than a week.
ANDREW BIRD - HARK!
Andrew Bird released a holiday album featuring his particular spin on standards, covers of songs by John Prine, Handsome Family and Vince Guaraldi, and a few originals, too (including one titled "Christmas in April" which is about COVID lockdown). "Let’s not talk about the dubious motives that might lead an artist to make a holiday record," says Andrew. "It’s a complicated relationship many of us have with the holidays and the requisite music we hear. So let’s admit that it’s a utilitarian thing. The music is just one contributing factor to our communal or solitary joy and melancholy. As a musician, it’s an excuse to take a break from writing the next record and indulge in an unapologetically nostalgic exercise. I’ve done my best to find some lesser known gems."
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PHOEBE BRIDGERS - "IF WE MAKE IT THROUGH DECEMBER (MERLE HAGGARD COVER)"
Phoebe Bridgers' melancholy take on the Merle Haggard classic benefits Downtown Women's Center.
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JULIEN BAKER - "A DREAMER'S HOLIDAY"
The 2020 additions to the 'Spotify Singles: Holiday Collection' playlist have been released, and one of the highlights is this Julien Baker cover of "A Dreamer's Holiday." "I chose ‘Dreamers Holiday’ because I found it incredibly unique as far as holiday songs are concerned," Julien said. "It’s a very understated song- both lyrically and musically; while it’s technically about a ‘holiday’, it doesn’t directly reference any specific holiday theme, it leaves the lyrics a bit more open-ended." The playlist also includes new holiday songs by Dashboard Confessional, Jazmine Sullivan, Betty Who, Black Pumas, and more. Read more here.
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FIELD MUSIC - "HOME FOR CHRISTMAS"
Last year Field Music released "Home for Christmas," a synthy baroque holiday single, that was only available as a limited 7". It's now getting a digital released via a new compilation Lost Christmas being released by their label Memphis Industries that also features tracks from Warm Digits, The Phoenix Foundation, Jesca Hoop, The Go! Team and more.
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TINASHE - COMFORT & JOY EP
Tinashe has released a holiday EP, putting her atmospheric R&B spin on classics like "Last Christmas," "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," "The Christmas Song," and more.
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SKATUNE NETWORK - "ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU"
Skatune Network has teamed with Candice from Woolbright for a very fun indie-ska-punk cover of Mariah Carey's timeless holiday classic.
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WE ARE THE UNION - "I'M WORKING RETAIL FOR CHRISTMAS"
But wait, there's more. Detroit ska-punks We Are The Union (whose lineup also includes Skatune Network's Jeremy Hunter) have put out an original Christmas ska-punk song about the horrors of working in retail around Christmas time, and it comes with this kicker: "I'm working retail for Christmas/Cause I play in a ska-punk band."
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POPPY - "I WON'T BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS"
Poppy's bubblegum pop/industrial/metal album I Disagree is one of the year's most talked about albums, and today she follows it up with a melancholic Christmas song.
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BLEACHED - "JINGLE BELLS"
LA due Bleached give the holiday classic a shouty, punk spin.
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ALEX LAHEY - "MERRY CHRISTMAS (I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT TONIGHT)" (RAMONES COVER)
"This one goes out to the kid in high school who made fun of my HEY HO LET’S GO tshirt I wore on casual clothes day in year 8," Alex Lahey says of her new festive Ramones cover.
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THE MARIAS - "WE'RE THE LUCKY ONES"
Here's another very early holiday song, this time courtesy The Marias. “Even though it’s my favorite holiday and immediately gives me a sense of warmth and nostalgia for happier times, it also makes me grieve for the ones who lost their lives and didn’t make it to Christmas," says Maria. "I feel like one of the lucky ones. We are all lucky to be alive.”
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TORI AMOS - "BETTER ANGELS"
Tori Amos is releasing a new holiday EP. Christmastide, which she made with longtime collaborators Matt Chamberlain (drums) and Jon Evans (bass), is due out on December 4 via Decca Records; you can see the tracklisting below. She's shared its first single, "Better Angels,"
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DOLLY PARTON - A HOLLY DOLLY CHRISTMAS
The legendary Dolly Parton released a Christmas album, including covers of classics like "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," and featuring Miley Cyrus, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Fallon, Billy Ray Cyrus, and more.
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CALEXICO - "HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER)" (JOHN LENNON & YOKO ONO COVER)
Calexico's new holiday album Seasonal Shift comes out December 4 via ANTI-, and the latest single is this take on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's classic. "I love this song and I love the universality of the lyrics and the call and response sea of voices,” vocalist and guitarist Joey Burns says. "I decided to start as quiet as possible and find out how loud and massive we could make this song build. There's a touch of bittersweet added with Connor Gallaher's slow bending pedal steel that combined with the trumpets that frames this song in a very southwestern, familiar tradition for us, but it's the vocals that really carry this tune for me and the way the chorus keeps going. We decided to not stop as the original had and see what would happen if we kept the trance and mantra going. This is something that we would do live onstage a lot and felt really good to try it at home in our makeshift studios scattered around the globe. I love how spread out we all are. Gives a sense of pride especially in these times."
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LIL NAS X - "HOLIDAY"
Lil Nas X has released his first new single of 2020, and it comes with a futuristic Christmas-themed video, but it's not exactly a holiday song. It also addresses how "Old Town Road" turned Lil Nas X into a star: "I pulled a gimmick, I admit it, I got no remorse/Nobody tried to let me in, nobody opened doors."
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THE DEARS - "CHRISTMAS SONG"
Montreal's The Dears have jumped on the holiday sleigh with a new single. This is an original, but it also features a rendition of "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
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CHILLY GONZALES, FEIST, JARVIS COCKER - "SNOW IS FALLING IN MANHATTAN" (PURPLE MOUNTAINS COVER)
Te highlight of Chilly Gonzales' new holiday record features Feist and Jarvis Cocker on a truly gorgeous cover of David Berman's "Snow is Falling in Manhattan" (from the Purple Mountains album). Jarvis' hushed delivery is perfect for both a song like this and Gonzales' arrangement, and Feist coming in with the "Snow-oh-whoa-oh-whoa-oh-whoa" chorus is enough to make you melt. It's hard to top the Purple Mountains original, but this is a classic in its own right.
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THE BIRD AND THE BEE - PUT UP THE LIGHTS
Poppy indie duo The Bird and the Bee have released an 8-song collection of holiday covers and originals, including "Little Drummer Boy" featuring Dave Grohl. “I’m so happy it’s finally here,” said Greg Kurstin. “We included some of our favorite holiday songs and wrote a couple of originals too. One of my favorite songs we wrote is “You and I at Christmas Time” which was written through email. I sent Inara the piano part and I was blown away by what she sang over it.”
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THE RAVEONETTES - "SNOWSTORM"
Denmark's The Raveonettes have shared their first new song in a while, a holiday song called "Snowstorm" featuring a Hawaiian vibe and some fairly dark lyrics: "Now the world is not the same / It's in flames / We are apart from loved ones / No Christmas time sleighrides in the snowstorm."
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THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO - "IT WILL STILL BE CHRISTMAS"
The Boy Least Likely To have released their annual holiday single, and this year all proceeds will be donated to Refuge "to help them to continue providing life-saving and life-changing services to women and children escaping domestic abuse and other forms of gender-based violence."
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THE OFFSPRING - "CHRISTMAS (BABY PLEASE COME HOME)"
It's already Christmas music season we guess, and here's a faithful rendition of the Darlene Love classic "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by... The Offspring?
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CARLY RAE JEPSEN - "IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS TILL SOMEBODY CRIES"
"I love the old fashioned movies and the family traditions and the excitement of gifting presents and decorating the tree and and and... my list is endless,” Carly says of her new holiday song. “But each year the pressure to have the perfect Christmas always ends in tears. I call it Christmas versus expectation. Christmas holiday is my favorite time of year. I love it, but so often emotions run high and expectation versus reality is something I’d like to shed some light on and hopefully some laughs too in the process. So if you are lucky enough to get to be with the ones that matter most to you this year-embrace it! And if things go south just remember, the secret is to sing a little song to survive... that it’s not Christmas till somebody cries!"
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TEGAN AND SARA - "MAKE YOU MINE THIS SEASON"
Tegan and Sara's new holiday song features in Happiest Season, a new queer holiday romantic comedy directed by Clea DuVall and starring Kirsten Stewart and Mackenzie Davis, set to debut on Hulu on November 25.
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MENTO BURU - EAST BAKERFIELD CHRISTMAS
"Christmas time is our favorite time of year, so we put something together guaranteed to lift spirits and dancing feet around the Christmas tree," says Mento Buru vocalist Matt Munoz of the group's new holiday EP. "Anything set to a ska or reggae beat is sure to bring out the tamales and egg nog with mezcal in East Bakersfield. These songs were personally handpicked, arranged and performed with heart, soul, and of course ska. We hope you enjoy them as much as we had fun recording them."
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Looking for even more new songs? Browse the ‘New Songs’ archive and our “Holiday Music” category.