Strawberries and cream, cocktails and sunsets, Bert and Ernie. Some things were just meant to go together. And so it is with the boy least likely to and the holiday season. They go so perfectly together, it is as if the Christmas album was a concept thought up especially for them. After all, no other band manages to sound quite so happy and quite so sad at the same time. Like Christmas itself, the band’s songs are brimming with joy and excitement, at the same time as being undercut with a melancholy and a feeling of sadness, a longing for something absent or lost in adulthood. So while they were writing songs for their next album they took a break to spend the Summer writing and recording this collection of holiday hits.
Here is a personal note from the boys about the album:
christmas makes me so happy. but it makes me so sad sometimes too. i think that’s why i find it so magical. making a christmas album might seem like an odd thing to do, but for us it seems like the most perfect thing. some of my favourite songs are christmas songs. we’ve always been drawn to them and we’ve always written them, with the thought that someday we would have enough christmas songs to fill a whole album. and at last we have, so here it is. the boy least likely to christmas special. the christmas album we’ve always dreamed of making.
merry christmas and a happy new year
with love from
the boy least likely to
Strongly influenced by the independent bands of the 1980s, the songs bring to mind the post punk playfulness of Altered Images, Aztec Camera, Dexys Midnight Runners, and Orange Juice. A charming rural pop sound with banjos, glockenspiels, recorders and fiddles thumping away in a quirky indie folk style. Christmas Special is the third album from the boy least likely to, following the success of their first two albums, The Best Party Ever and The Law Of The Playground. Included here are eight new original festive songs by the boy least likely to, alongside three seasonal cover versions. There are snowflakes and sleigh bells, Christmas trees and mistletoe, donkeys and single parents. There is a song that imagines George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley of Wham reunited on Christmas eve in a Cornish pub. The album also includes their two previous Christmas songs, Little Donkey and The First Snowflake.
In North America, Christmas Special will be released on November 30th exclusively on iTunes and on December 7th on all other digital retailers on +1 Records.
Here is the official tracklisting:
Tracklisting
1. The Christmas Waltz
2. A Happy Christmas Baby
3. Blue Spruce Needles
4. Little Donkey
5.Christmas Isn’t Christmas
6. The Wassail Song
7. Jingle My Bells
8. George And Andrew
9. In The Bleak Midwinter
10. I Can’t Make It Snow
11. The First Snowflake
We will be premiering two of the songs prior to the album release, so stay tuned…
the boy least likely to will also be going out on a five date tour of the UK in December because they thought it would be fun. And because they’ve got a new album coming out, but really just because they thought it would be fun. All in all, It might just be the best Christmas party ever.
December
Tuesday 7th Nottingham, Bodega Social
Wednesday 8th Glasgow, King Tuts
Thursday 9th Manchester, Ruby Lounge
Saturday 11th Winchester, Railway Inn
Tuesday 14th London, Hoxton Bar & Kitchen
As if that wasn’t enough excitement for the end of the year, their song When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade is featured in the new film Easy A and is also included on the soundtrack album.
Additionally, their song Stringing Up Conkers was the soundtrack for the iPhone 3GS Nationwide TV Commercial, and it was also featured the iPad tutorial video, which can be seen here
Both songs are from their latest album, The Law Of The Playground, which is out now on +1 Records.