Awkward Love Lights

The true course of Xmas lights ne’er did run smooth. Sometimes they tangle up, just like love ’round the holidays.

Tangled up, is the theme for the stand-offish love ballad “Christmas Lights in June.” Patrick McGlynn is not all in for this romance, despite his somewhat passionate alt-pop

Garage music love is not like regular love, perhaps more intense, perhaps more cazh. Samurai Tiger’s “Christmas Lights” paces between the two with awkward lyrics.

Doomed love from Levi Altar with the pretty pop guitar pickings and modulated commercial announcement-voice in “The Lights.” Unrequited hollerin’.

Calmer, Slowly Slowly metaphorizes the lover as the lights you take for granted. Alt-declamatory, “Christmas Lights” takes us for an advanced poetry course of angst. Some anger, too.

Repeating Lights

I swear i’ll find the time someday to feature songs that just repeat one line over and over, like some brain-damaged mantra that means everything but sounds foreign eight reps in.

Tyrone & Lesley strum that uke and strut their stuff with the phrase “Like a Light Bulb.” Does it mean Christmas?! Man, it means whatever you’d like it to mean. Listen to it again.

Kingdom 2 follows up with the stomping, orchestrated alt “Big Red Light.” (Some ah ah ahs here, but they just emphasize the main theme.) Party time!

Family Lights

The warm insouciance of bloodlines for Christmas calls us back to that smelly old rickety ranch style (why don’t they fix the porch, that’d be so easy?).

Donna Lewis describes such striking milestones on her way home to “Christmas Lights” i’m dreaming of an allegorical journey to the land beyond death. Woof, that’s strange pop.

Shorty Garrett gets down home with his call to “Keep Those Candles Burnin’.” Just like in those old Motel 6 commercials this bouncy blues pop recommends a beacon for the delayed to get home.

Leave the Lights on for Me” croons Joseph Hollister on his way with a promise and an alt-pop prayer. Aww, he’s such a good boy.

Happy Lights

Sometimes lights around the holiday evokes big goofy grins. It’s one of the grandest secondary features of the season.

Patrick Connell just loves the “Christmas Lights.” He can’t stop banging that sentiment out on his folk guitar, so ya gotta believe!

Slowing down the sentiment, Candace and Michael believe all they need are the “Christmas Lights.” It’s like a reflective walk down a beautifully decorated street at Christmas. Lovely alt-pop.

Jewel’s got a strange alt-pop with “Blue Crystal Glow.” Her poetry tends to just list image fragments. Still, ethereal.

More aggressively alt-rock, Dreams So Real find their understated joy in “Red Lights (Merry Christmas).” No irony was harmed in the making of this song.

Prayer Lights

We like to aim our prayers upward, but God’s everywhere right? Must be that glowing gaseous center of the solar system that acts as a relay station or sumpin.

Every Light that Shines at Christmas” is the shouty gospel rafter raiser we’ve been expecting. Ernie Haase & Signature Sound add country rock rhythms to keep us salivatin’. Praise wattage!

Truth wants you to “Light a Christmas Candle” with their sax-driven country pop in order to honor, you know, everything.

The Robert Shaw Chorale ups the church factor with “Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light.” This is probably just that star we discussed last month, but I dig the part about putting Satan in his place with the light. Bazinga!

Kathleen Mikkelson alt-sermonizes with “Light Broke Through,” a strangely cynical take on doubters when the lights came on Christmas morning. Just look, everyone!

Shine etc. Star

That Year Zero Star that begat our calendar of forgiveness, it shines. Boy Howdy, does it. And other stuff, too.

Canadian grocery chain Sobeys spins a “Star of Christmas” jingle every year. This star doesn’t merely shine up there, but within us! Sing-along propaganda.

Fix Your Eyes Upon That Star” proselytizes Lisa Bevill. ‘Cause it shines. Everywhere. Gentle country gospel.

Empire of Sleep’s “Star” does its fair share of shining and hiding. It also JUDGES. Don’t leave us alone! Emo alt.

ël-No, the twenty-ninth

Christmas isn’t happening because I died, okay?! No Xmas for the ex-person.

Aged big band aficionado Jerry Drake brazens his way through the MIA tragedy “The Boy Who Missed Christmas.” No, it’s not a Christmas song at all. It’s barely a song.

Alto soaring, Nick Dache doesn’t have much to say after a near-death experience, except for apologizing for the “Empty Christmas.” Too much acceptance, not enough denial, dude. Light alt fun, tho.

ël-No, the twenty-eighth

Credit where credit is overdue. We all enjoy Christmas because of–? Well, JC may have rebranded an ongoing festival… Santa only came into the equation late… Hmm.

If It Weren’t for Girls, There Would be No Christmas” croons The Want to a peppy rock backbeat. Sure, it tries a bit too hard and as such overcompensates with stereotypes and some back-handed flattery. But who else is taking the time to appreciate, i ask you?