Another Holiday season is well underway. While the world burns down around us, you’re probably scrambling to get gifts for people as the steady churn of capitalism continues unabated. By now, every single public place you enter is likely playing the same ten or so Christmas songs non-stop at a deafening volume. The bells and saccharine messages of joy are slowly eating away at your already diminished brain cells. It’s natural to want an escape.
Fortunately, artists are still making and releasing timeless songs that don’t feature sentient snowmen or radioactive reindeer. Here are a few you can put on as you drive to, like, ten different places to find a super specific gift before eventually giving up and ordering it on Amazon like a heartless, soulless monster.
Adrianne Lenker “Ruined”
Few things are certain in this life: Death, taxes, and the indisputable fact that Adrianne Lenker is not of this mortal world. Including her work with Big Thief, Lenker has released ten albums worth of material in just under eight years’ time. Any ordinary person in her position would be forgiven for taking at least a year off, but Lenker is far from ordinary. Her new single “Ruined” – from her yet-to-be-announced fifth solo album – is a haunting washed out and piano-driven ode to a fresh love, though – in typical Lenker fashion – the themes feel more cosmic on the outset. Perhaps if you could pen a song this masterful, your ex would finally take you back.
TWRP “Ladybug”
Ignore your seasonal depression and mounting problems for a couple of minutes, it’s time to fucking dance. At least that’s what our Managing Editor keeps screaming to her in-office mirror while blasting TWRP’s latest foray into future-pop ad-nauseam. She’s not wrong to do so, either. Between the infectious slap-bass, bitchin’ guitar solos, and melty vocoder vocals, hearing this song upwards of twenty times a day is the closest many of our writers have come to unabashed happiness in months.
IDLES “Grace”
The latest single from UK’s genre-defying quintet IDLES has arrived, bearing quite the influence from previous tourmates LCD Soundsystem. ‘Grace’ sees the band carrying on the pop experimentation that flooded their last LP ‘Crawler’ but with markedly more satisfying results. Crooning atop a droning drum machine loop, with swirling synths and phasers that wouldn’t sound out of place on even the most monumental early 2000s dance-punk album, it bites at nostalgia as it paves a sonic way forward for the band’s ever-changing sound.
Laura Jane Grace “Cuffing Season”
Laura Jane Grace’s latest offering ‘Hole In My Head’ isn’t due out for another two months and change. Based on your insatiable impatience, that may as well be ten years from now. Not to worry! Grace has released yet another single, ‘Cuffing Season,’ to help tide you over. Much like the first single ‘Dysphoria Hoodie,’ the track finds Grace proving how intensely she can perform without a roaring backup band punctuating her bombastic vocal delivery. While we’re champing at the bit to hear more of her drumming skills, this one still has us yearning for the pit.
Joanna Sternberg “Without You”
As if their recent album ‘I’ve Got Me’ wasn’t enough to bowl everyone over into a cathartic state of melancholy bliss, Joanna Sternberg has been steadily releasing new singles. Their most recent, “Without You,” is a sweetly satisfying jazz romp complete with Sternberg’s excellent lyricism and penchant for melody. There’s even scatting! It’s such a joyous track that you probably won’t even notice it’s about the dangers of codependent relationships until well into the fifth play-through.
Sweet Pill “Chewed Up”
You now have a new favorite emo band and it’s Sweet Pill. After making waves with last year’s fantastic debut, ‘Where the Heart Is,’ the band is continuing to expand their already massive sound. Their most recent single, ‘Chewed Up,’ is a journey through nearly every hidden corner of the emo genre at large, starting off intensely and mathy before breaking down into a dreamy half-time blissfest. Each twist and turn is bolstered by Zayna Youssef’s powerhouse vocal delivery. Try not to sing along too loud to this one in the car, that’s no place to pass out.
The Killers “Spirit”
The Killers just released a Greatest Hits album, coming as a shock to all who read the plural form of the word ‘Hit.’ It’s a pretty stunning display of power-pop triumph and also includes a brand-new song. If our ears don’t receive us, ‘Spirit’ sounds like it could have been plucked from the same sessions as ‘Hot Fuss.’ It’s a suitable addition seeing as that album might as well have been repackaged as the retrospective hits collection if we’re being honest with ourselves. Before you ask: Yes, we’ve heard ‘Sam’s Town.’ Everybody knows that album was more about vibes than it was about hits, you moron.
Bright Eyes “Christmas In Prison” (John Prine Cover)
Look, we know we’re helping you avoid Christmas songs, but this one barely counts. There’s nothing quite as sad as a holiday-themed Bright Eyes track, which makes it no surprise that Conor Oberst has managed to make a jovial John Prine tune about incarcerated yuletide sound more somber than a funeral dirge. That’s not to say it’s bad, in fact far from it. It’s an incredibly touching effort, but let’s just say the addition of John Prine’s actual monologue from the track was a wise choice and a much-needed lift here.
Just in case these eight songs weren’t enough to soothe your Bing Crosby-induced white-hot rage, we’ve compiled these and a whole bunch of others in an ever-growing playlist. It’s updated weekly, or whenever we feel like it, so you’ll never run out of new music to bitch about. Click here to save and listen. If we get to 100 likes we might start putting good songs on it for a change!