ChristMixTape 2017

Click the album cover to download the entire mix as a .zip archive or click here to listen to/download the individual tracks!

TRACK LISTING:

01 - Stephen Colbert & Elvis Costello - There Are Much Worse Things To Believe In

02 - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Christmas is Starting Now

03 - Sugarcult - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

04 - R.E.M. - Merry Xmas Everybody

05 - Summer Camp - I Dont Wanna Wait Til Christmas

06 - Jon Bon Jovi - I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas

07 - Run‐D.M.C. - Christmas Is

08 - Bruce Springsteen & E. Street Band (feat Conan O'Brien) - Merry Christmas Baby

09 - The Ebonys - Christmas Ain't Christmas

10 - William Bell - Everyday Will Be A Holiday

11 - The Band - Christmas Must Be Tonight

12 - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Little Red Rooster

13 - Dashboard Confessional - The Only Gift That I Need

14 - Carly Rae Jepsen - Mittens

15 - Carrie Underwood - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

16 - Stevie Wonder & Kimberly Brewer - I Love You More

17 - Smashing Pumpkins - Christmastime

18 - Queen - Thank God It's Christmas

19 - Gregory Porter - A Cradle In Bethlehem

*long, melancholy sigh*

Another year, another festive mixtape. 2017 has been a pretty good one for me, with many changes, trials and tribulations. More and more, however, it seems don’t really know as much about the world these days as I thought I did. And so, in lieu of any round robin naval-gazing or sociopolitical commentary, I’d like to say a few words about a subject on which I do feel well-versed: ChristMixTapes.

First and foremost, I make these mixes primarily for my own enjoyment. I love Christmas, I love music, so it would seem only right that the two would mesh well in my head. I like to have songs that put me in the right frame of mind when I’m driving around in December or sitting in Starbucks cradling a Red Cup in my blue hands. I also, however, enjoy the thought that there are myriad others like me who enjoy the respective jingling and clanging of Christmas bells, large and small, and I like to imagine them (and in fact you, dear reader) finding the same cheer and warmth as I do in hearing these great songs.

The ChristMixTape process is always the same, almost comedically so:

The initial scraping of songs happens constantly throughout the year whenever I happen to hear Christmas songs on movies or TV or random YouTube links or even other people’s mixes, but usually begins in earnest some time in November when I start to gather the links I’ve saved for later perusal, like a woodland creature stuffing its tiny flexible cheeks with sweet trail mix for the harsh winter ahead.

I then whittle those potential picks down to a more manageable number to ensure that every ChristMixTape is all killer, no filler. The next step is usually the most difficult: ordering the tracks to ensure a good flow. I know it probably seems like every mix is just thrown together but I actually paw and agonise over every track’s placement in order to make a statement or otherwise subconsciously guide the listener through the experience. This is often the part at which I experience a mild panic attack, doubting my every track selection because “it just doesn’t fit” and “the songs are terrible this year!” until (and it’s hilarious how this happens every. single. year.) I somehow tweak a tiny part of the ordering, magically allowing everything else to fall neatly and perfectly into place and I can suddenly see it all clearly. What results is (usually!) a coherent mix with which I’m pleased and can stand behind and enjoy for the rest of the season.

Then (often the most important step), toward the end of November, once I’m confident I have a release-worthy mix, I take a week-long break from ChristMixing in order to avoid the dreaded CMFS (Christmas Music Fatigue Syndrome™) and then re-listen to the final Gold Master product a few times more with new ears and commit any final tweaks.

Then and only then it’s time to edit metadata, polish the audio (including normalising, top-and-tailing and any EQ tweaks…) and create the all-important artwork (which usually just involves me slapping some text on a wintery photo I’ve taken in previous years…) and then publishing to my website.

I bet you never knew so much work went into crafting a Christmas classic, but there it is.

But all joking aside, the most important factor in all of this is the music. The only real requirements for a song to be included on one of these mixes is that it be Christmas-related (sometimes only loosely so) and that it be a song which, even if it weren’t the most wonderful time of the year, I’d still enjoy listening to. Back when I started these almost TEN years ago in 2008 I was only just coming to terms with my love of Christmas music, as uncool as I realised that made me, but I was sickened by a lot of the same handful of songs played on tinny department store PA systems throughout the land, and so these compilations were an attempt to find some wheat amongst the chaff of overplayed festive tunes, a Christmas diamond in the rough. Over the years I like to think I’ve achieved that, and for those of you who’ve been with me throughout the various releases, I hope these have soundtracked some important Christmas memories and made your holiday season even more enjoyable.

So with that, please enjoy my 9th annual ChristMixTape for 2017, and here’s to #10 in 2018! I think I may have to give 2019 a miss as a Glastonbury-esque fallow year………….nah.

Blessings y’all

xo