Christmas is sneaking up on me this year, so what better way to get in the festive spirit than an album by Thrice mainman Dustin Tensrue. This record, made up mainly of festive covers, is a stripped down affair so don’t expect any Thrice-esque solos or screams. This is very much a CD for a long winter’s drive, put this CD on and you’ll have the cockles of heart warmed in no time at all. It’s as gimmicky a record as you could expect, but in terms of getting people ready for visits from Santa this certainly does the trick.
‘Fairytale of New York’ is one of the best Christmas songs ever and Dustin’s version is good, but nowhere near as good as No Use For A Name‘s stonking version. That said, he sounds like he’s been on the whiskey and had sunk a few shots before recording it. ‘O Holy Night’ and ‘Hark the Hearld Angels Sing’ are proper family favourites. The latter just sounds a bit weird – it’s not what you’d expect from the man who wrote tracks like ‘Deadbolt’. I can’t see me giving this much play after the Christmas break, but between now and then this record may well get several spins and several singalongs.