Emmy The Great & Tim Wheeler - This Is Christmas (2011)

5/10   

I’ll be honest. When it comes to Christmas music, I’m something of a Scrooge. With this year’s main festive entries coming courtesy of the likes of Bieber and Bublé, can you really blame me?

So I was highly surprised to learn that an artist who I’ve keenly followed over the last few years, Emmy The Great, was releasing a Christmas album with her significant other, Tim Wheeler of Ash. Just to add to the romance, they began work on the album last year while trapped inside by snow, aww... As much as you’d like them to succeed with their first (and surely not last) collaborative effort, it doesn’t exactly scream potential masterpiece.

In truth, it’s not horrendous. Well, not after the first proper song (following an intro). “Marshmallow World” is, thankfully, the only cover on here, but it’s very much a feeling of one too many. Sickeningly sugary lyrics and Christmassy guitar riffs that should never have made it out of Tesco dampen any optimism you might be tempted to feel towards the project. Indeed, Emmy and Tim’s voices don’t seem to complement each other that well and the tracks where both make a significant vocal contribution are often the least bearable; take the sleigh bell-ridden single, “Home For The Holidays”. I appreciate that this has a lot of appeal for those who enjoy Christmas songs, but not for most fans of either artist.

But amongst all the tiresome cheesiness, there are some decent songs. Typically, they involve Emmy taking centre stage. “Christmas Moon” is a lovely waltzy number evoking memories of her earlier work, albeit with added sleigh bells. Her wit and propensity for irony really do win out on songs such as “(Don’t Call Me) Mrs Christmas” where she sings about the setbacks of being Santa Claus’ wife; alone on Christmas Eve while he goes off spreading cheer around the world.

Tim also fares better when doing his own thing; “Christmas Day (I Wish I was Surfing)” has the pop-punk feel of an old Ash song, with Wheeler’s voice much better-suited to it than anything else on the record. That said, there is one likeable joint effort in the shape of the synthy “Snowflakes”, a song with genuine pop appeal rather than a hollow festive theme.

What’s slightly more disheartening is when the attempts at wit lose their charm and end up becoming cringeworthy. Come on, “Sleigh Me” is awful wordplay. “Zombie Christmas” comes off as a bit overly kooky, though does contain the line “I don’t wanna have my last Noel/Let’s kick those zombies back to Hell!” As for “Jesus The Reindeer”, it’s plain bizarre, to the point where even this somewhat pretentious blogger couldn’t bother to find some meaning behind it.

So even though the diminutive couple have salvaged some artistic credibility with a handful of listenable songs, it’s not enough to make this a worthwhile venture. Having to actively search for bright spots in the work of two talented artists is bad enough, before realising their voices don’t mingle well and their best contributions are when they stick to their own formulae. Still, This Is Christmas surely won’t be the worst thing you hear over the festive season...

This album was released by Infectious on 21 November 2011, available from Amazon