Pistol Annies have unleashed their first Christmas album – Hell of a Holiday, available everywhere today here – a seductively laidback, country-infused Christmas record.
Country music trio Pistol Annies have released their collection of original holiday tunes on their first Christmas album, Hell of a Holiday, out now. Of the project the trio say, “We couldn’t be happier we got to make a Christmas Album. Once we finally surrendered and let the Christmas songwriting spirit take over, we were so inspired and felt that magic on every single one of these songs… We hope to be a part of so many people’s Christmas memories for years to come.”
Hell of a Holiday stands out from a roster of recent country music Christmas releases that centre around Christmas covers, bringing 10 original festival tracks written by the Annies with their signature winking humour, while also honouring the spirit of the season. Lyrically, the original tracks are clever, witty and refreshing. The title track conjures images of the hectic holiday whirlwind that arrives every 1st November as does the surprisingly joyful ‘Make You Blue’, while ‘ Snow Globe’ dreams of a romantic winter wonderland, replete with whimsy and vintage charm. Similarly, ‘Harlan County Coal’ is a blue-collar Christmas sonic dream, delivered with a layer of grit as the trio sing of the hardworking required for normal families to bring Christmas to life and ‘Happy Birthday’ describes an all-too-familiar and comical cast of familial characters. ‘The Only Thing I Wanted’ offers a melancholic and wistful take on the familiar track ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You.’ Elsewhere, the trio tribute Santa himself on ‘Come on Christmas Time’ – a delightfully, lazily grooving and seductive modern-day Christmas classic – and return to the meaning of Christmas on the blues-y ‘Leanin’ on Jesus’ and ‘Believing.’ The project does also take on standard classics, including “Sleigh Ride,” and Merle Haggard’s “If We Make it Through December,” plus a reimagined “Auld Lang Syne” – but these merely round out the project.
Hell of a Holiday is a delightfully humble Christmas album that will make broad swathes of people feel seen – both in the joy of the season and the hardships that it also brings for so many. The trio’s vocals are born for this kind of nuanced, emotional project and are borne out to the full on this wonderfully rounded creation that stands apart as a brave new Christmas record – complete with some stunning new classics for the holiday season.
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