Not to be a nudge, but I just want to quickly remind you that "A Stubby's House Christmas 2014" is available for download. All those Christmas day vids kinda pushed it down and out. But it's there. Read all about it.
Scott Hutchinson, the front man for Scotland's Frightened Rabbit, has been walking a different path this year. After Gordon Skene left Frightened Rabbit in March, Scott, Andy Monaghan, and Salmon Liddell of the touring band collaborated on what was more or less a Scott Hutchinson solo project. They called the effort Owl John. From a fan's perspective Owl John just seems like the next chapter (or a branch of the same tree) of Frightened Rabbit, so, on that score, feel comforted.
Frightened Rabbit recorded one of the most classic and influential Indie Christmas songs, "It's Christmas, So We'll Stop". There's been a lot of hand-wringing in the last few years--"Where are the new seasonal standards?" people lament. I've never much worried about it. Because, almost by definition, "standards" of Christmas music are the songs you grew up with, it takes at least twenty years before a new song can even be considered for membership in the club. You may not remember, but there were a good many years when Darlene Love's "(Christmas) Baby Please Come Home" wasn't being played on the radio; now its omnipresent. Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" wasn't an "instant classic"--there's no such thing, really. What counts is staying power. You can't judge staying power in the first year or two (how many people are still singing "The Macarena"?). Now, 20 years after its release, it's fair to say Mariah's tune is a member in good standing of the seasonal standards club. "Last Christmas", also 20 years on, is there as well; it has proven itself over time (and, believe me, in year one, NOBODY saw that coming). Like Baseball's Hall of Fame, not everybody gets in on the first ballot, either. I still believe the Vince Vance song (with the same title as Mariah's) is destined to be a standard; so far, though, it's just outside that circle.
The entire Indie era isn't 20 years old, yet. So where are the new Christmas classics? We'll know in time. It's the general consensus that Low's "Christmas" album and especially the song "Just Like Christmas" will be among the first of this new class to "make it". "Christmas" was released in 1999, so another 4 or 5 years should tell the tale. It's not hard to imagine some of Sufjan Stevens' holiday songs making the hall of standards in time. And I went through all that because I believe Frightened Rabbit's "It's Christmas, So We'll Stop" is a great candidate as well, but it's only been around since 2007, so we've got a long wait ahead before we'll know.
Frightened Rabbit recorded one of the most classic and influential Indie Christmas songs, "It's Christmas, So We'll Stop". There's been a lot of hand-wringing in the last few years--"Where are the new seasonal standards?" people lament. I've never much worried about it. Because, almost by definition, "standards" of Christmas music are the songs you grew up with, it takes at least twenty years before a new song can even be considered for membership in the club. You may not remember, but there were a good many years when Darlene Love's "(Christmas) Baby Please Come Home" wasn't being played on the radio; now its omnipresent. Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" wasn't an "instant classic"--there's no such thing, really. What counts is staying power. You can't judge staying power in the first year or two (how many people are still singing "The Macarena"?). Now, 20 years after its release, it's fair to say Mariah's tune is a member in good standing of the seasonal standards club. "Last Christmas", also 20 years on, is there as well; it has proven itself over time (and, believe me, in year one, NOBODY saw that coming). Like Baseball's Hall of Fame, not everybody gets in on the first ballot, either. I still believe the Vince Vance song (with the same title as Mariah's) is destined to be a standard; so far, though, it's just outside that circle.
The entire Indie era isn't 20 years old, yet. So where are the new Christmas classics? We'll know in time. It's the general consensus that Low's "Christmas" album and especially the song "Just Like Christmas" will be among the first of this new class to "make it". "Christmas" was released in 1999, so another 4 or 5 years should tell the tale. It's not hard to imagine some of Sufjan Stevens' holiday songs making the hall of standards in time. And I went through all that because I believe Frightened Rabbit's "It's Christmas, So We'll Stop" is a great candidate as well, but it's only been around since 2007, so we've got a long wait ahead before we'll know.
So what's the point of this long-ass post? Nothing, really. Just a way of explaining a new Frightened Rabbit Christmas single that isn't really a Frightened Rabbit Christmas single. When the band released "She Screams Christmas" in 2012, it carried the Frightened Rabbit name but it was mostly Scott Hutchinson. This new song, "It Gets Cold", carries the name of Christmas John, but it's mostly Scott Hutchinson. "It Gets Cold" was released on Christmas Day at around 5 or 6 p.m. (so its fresh baked). It's got that classic Indie Scott Hutchinson sound and it's a free download on Soundcloud. Additionally, Scott's loaded 3 other songs as free downloads (including "She Screams Christmas"). But he does ask that you consider donating what you can to The Great Big Cycle, an organization seeking treatments and a cure for Cystinosis, a disease Scott's young niece, Morven, was born with in 2010.
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