Did you know that Mariah Carey receives $873,000 every year in royalties from her Christmas tune “All I want for Christmas is you”. Don’t get me wrong, Mariah Carey’s Christmas album is great! But a little cheesy. It’s time for another edition of 5 Christmas Albums that don’t suck! You can see volume 1 here.
The criteria for inclusion in this list? Obviously not sucking is essential. It also needs to have been released during the last four years (since the last list). Finally the bulk of the songs need to be Jesus songs… i.e. not the lame Santa songs. (Tangent: who would win in a cafe fight between Jesus and Santa? Check this). Here goes…
1. JOY HAS DAWNED by Kings Kaleidoscope //
This EP was released last Christmas and I haven’t stopped playing it for the 12 months since! I blogged on it three times… here and here and here. I also based the Christmas preaching series at St Faith’s on the title track. Why so much attention? Kings Kaleidoscope are one of my favourite bands and this EP is packed with energy and joy through its 5 tracks.
>> STREAM ‘JOY HAS DAWNED’ FOR FREE ON SPOTIFY
2. THE OH HELLO’S FAMILY CHRISTMAS ALBUM by The Oh Hellos //
I’ve had this one on repeat for the last 24 hours. It’s amazing! This folk rock EP walks through the story of Jesus in 4 movements with a pastiche of different Christmas Carols. It feels like it could be the score to a short film on the birth of Christ. Don’t shuffle the tracks, listen to them in order.
>> STREAM ‘THE OH HELLOS’ AND DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE FROM BANDCAMP
3. REPEAT THE SOUNDING JOY by Citizens //
Citizens released this EP last month and it was being regularly played in our car until our 2.5 year old put a 10 cent coin in the CD player. Another energetic offering from Mars Hill Church.
>> STREAM ‘REPEAT THE SOUNDING JOY’ FOR FREE ON SPOTIFY
4. CHRISTMAS SONGS COLLECTION VOL. 1-5 by Folk Angel //
42 tracks of Jesus-centred Christmas song goodness! Excellent arrangements. Keep an eye out for the great artists they’ve collaborated with on some of the tracks.
>> STREAM ‘CHRISTMAS SONGS COLLECTION’ FOR FREE OR BUY IT FROM BANDCAMP
5. SILVER & GOLD by Sufjan Stevens //
This is quirkiest of the list. But Sufjan has cool stuff. I’ve particularly enjoyed using one of his tracks as the title track for a radio station on Pandora: it pulls out lots of great modern artists as well as old school stuff like Ella Fitzgerald and Johnny Cash.
>> STREAM ‘SILVER & GOLD’ FOR FREE OR BUY IT FROM BANDCAMP
Got any others you can suggest? Leave any recommendations in the comments.
Stream all 5 albums below…
