16/ Laufey's accidental Christmas album

There are a handful of different vibe options for pre-Christmas mood building, right? For addressing envelopes with mulled wine and hanging up shiny shit everywhere.

There’s the cheesy pop option, Mariah and Wham! and all that shizzle. I feel like a party pooper for only very rarely being into that groove. There’s ‘Carols from Kings’, which always feels sad, for some reason. There’s the folklore route — both vintage trad and obscure psych noir, for ritualists and beardies. Then there’s the fifties middle America croon-fest, which is obviously problematic (hello white supremacy nostalgia, imma flirt with you) but has some absolute stonkers and is probably my most regular go-to, as long as I’m not depressed. For a start, Vince Guaraldi sits comfortably in that box.

So here’s a question: what non-Christmas (and leaning contemporary) records offer the nicest crackling log fire soundtracks to pre-Christmas activity? Records that were in no way aimed at the festive cash-in, don’t mention the day itself, yet work stylistically or atmospherically for this scenario?

Yesterday I was going back through albums I’ve enjoyed this year, trying to get my lists in order, and I realised that Laufey’s delicious second album of jazz-pop crossover songwriting Bewitched is an absolutely bang on soundtrack for decorating the tree and wrapping gifts. I was just tidying the kitchen but she ended up singing in the background for more than an hour.

If you haven’t encountered Laufey (it’s pronounced ‘lay-vay’) she’s an Icelandic/Chinese singer-songwriter, and gifted multi-instrumentalist, who grew up in Reykjavik’s classical scene, before moving to study in the USA, and now she’s two albums in, Grammy nominated, and based out of Los Angeles. For me, performance-wise at least, Laufey is a Gen Z Ella Fitzgerald or similar, though she’s a cracking songwriter in her own right: both her studio albums primarily comprise new songs, self-written material, with just one consistent co-writing partner, Spencer Stewart. Dan Wilson, the bloke from Semisonic, produced Bewitched, but he’s only taken a co-write on one track. Meanwhile her twin sister leads on all her creative design stuff, videos and such.

Laufey’s music updates the Norah Jones blueprint. Despite a lighter, more contemporary, sometimes outright funny lyrical skill, Bewitched still sounds genuinely timeless and kind of undeniable. It may be too treacly for you. But for a glimpse of Laufey’s vocal and instrumental chops (bearing in mind she’s actually a cellist) check out her recent Tiny Desk Concert that only just went up on YouTube, singing with a string quartet.

Anyway, I’ve always liked Christmas songs that don’t mention Christmas itself. But now I’m obsessively trying to think of more non-festive records that work for the season. Like, there’s always something shivering and woody and wintery about Richard Dawson’s music, but it’s probably too edgy to work in this context (unless you’re deeply into that psych-folk subset I mentioned earlier). My version of this game requires a guilty appetite for schmaltz, or at least some sentimentality…

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