Countdown to the Countdowns: An Alienhits Christmas!

Next week kicks off my annual year-end countdowns. Top 20 Albums and Top 50 Singles, here we come! But first, I've got a week-long countdown to my countdown, starting with this requested feature on Christmas music!

While Christmas is definitely one of my most favorite times of the year, when it comes to music I'm more of a Halloween songs kind of guy. Still, there are quite a few of lesser known tracks that I love to listen to around the holidays. Here, in no particular order, are a few of them:

Darren Hayes - Last Christmas
My favorite version of this track, captured during his Savage Garden days. It ups the tempo and pretty much perfects an already perfect pop song.

Melody Club - I Don’t Believe In Angels
The kind of Christmas track I could (and do) listen to all year long. It's got everything: bells, cheesy lyrics, a singalong chorus and that indelible Melody Club charm.

Girls Aloud - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (or anything off their EP)
Leave it to Girls Aloud to camp up Christmas. This is them at the height of their powers.

The Who - Christmas
From the best rock opera ever, Tommy, it's not the happiest of tracks, but it's freaking brilliant. I've gotta say, though, I prefer the movie version to the Who's version.

Aqua - Spin me a Christmas
Christmas the euro-pop way! Aqua 2.0 basically can do no wrong, and this follows suit.

Lady Gaga - Christmas Tree
She may have a new, more traditional Christmas EP out now, but I prefer this smutty oldie recorded back when she was still hungry for fame.

Sparks - Thank God It’s Not Christmas
An epic song anyway you shake it, this is just ridiculous bombast. Not the cheeriest of lyrics, but they're amazing anyway.

Hurts - All I Want for Christmas is New Year’s Day
It's about as downbeat as you'd expect from these guys, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. The bells make it.

Billy Elliot Soundtrack - Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher
From the absolute best modern stage musical, this is the show's catchiest track. I listen to it all year, but it's especially festive (in a vitriolic, down-with-Thatcher way) this time of year.

Pikko - The Ghost of Christmas Future
An icy electro track by one of my favorite indie Swedish artists. It's not high on melody, but has a sound that compliments the chilly season.

The Darkness - Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)
Pretty much what you'd expect from a Christmas song by the Darkness. It's got everything stuffed into it. And it's highly melodic to boot.

And some songs that sample Christmas. Can you tell which classics these tracks use?

Prozzak - It's Not Me It's You
The Mo - Rats on the Radio
JLS - Do You Feel What I Feel

Kaka - Below This Sun

"This funky little planet's no fun"

Kaka (aka: Ricky Karlsson, formerly of the Mo) is back! It's quite a welcome return, as his solo debut was a brilliant collection of slightly off-kilter synth pop. The new single, Below This Sun, is more of the same. This time around, though, there's a funky marching band beat underpinning the track. Production wise, it reminds me a little of Madonna's hit 4 Minutes. His trademark tropical synths are there as well, joining a dramatic synth swoop that bubbles up near the end, when the tempo explodes into something faster and stranger. It's a wonderful comeback, and gets me really excited for the upcoming album. Karlsson's the rare indie artist that writes as if he's aiming for the top of the charts. There's more than a little Mo left in him, which is huge for me, as the Mo were one of my favorite bands ever.

Kaka - Below This Sun by alienhits

(Music posted for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear, support the artists. Buy the single/EP here. Follow me on twitter and facebook.

Alienhits loves... Växjö, Sweden

An otherwise quite ordinary small college town in southern Sweden, Växjö has a huge distinction in my book. It is my Mecca for pop music.
The reason? All three of my favorite bands were birthed from this same town.
It’s hard to believe, but The Ark, Melody Club, and The Mo (yep, that’s the holy trinity right there) all met each other, started making music and formed in and around Växjö. It’s practically like a fairytale.
Though I’ve been to Sweden and seen two out of these three bands live (the Mo broke up before I could make it over), I’ve never traveled to Växjö. From what I've read, it’s not a town most tourists would put on their map. Plain, boring…etc. etc. Yet it’s from places like these that I think the best groups are formed. Towns like Växjö aren’t big enough to have a “scene,” so there’s no allowances for copycatting. Nobody was doing what these three bands were doing when they broke onto the scene. Though all craft pop music with strong retro influences, their image and sound would be considered pretty risky in any other part of the world than Scandinavia. They would be misconceived as trying to be ironic or just plain cheesy (in a world where cheesy = bad). The fact is, these guys are consummate musicians, as skilled at writing a perfect pop song as they are at picking out a perfect leather jacket.
Maybe I’m biased, growing up in a small town myself, but a part of me thinks that this kind of creativity is fostered best by boredom. I'd love to walk through Växjö with an Ark/MelodyClub/Mo playlist on my mp3 player. A religious experience? Not quite, but darn close.

Learn more about Växjö here