At a loss with the Christmas song climate in the race for this year’s Number 1, Getintothis’ Emma Walsh turns to a festive contender closer to home from The Demeanour.
It seems the glory days of the Christmas classic has well and truly passed. Over the last few years the race for the festive number 1 has consisted of talent show money-makers, charity collectives and the odd anti-Christmas alternative. Our yuletide playlists have grown stale. When was the last time an original Christmas release actually made into annual circulation alongside Shakin’ Stevens, Chris Rea and Slade? The Darkness perhaps?
Well Ormskirk’s The Demeanour have a contender to warm the cockles of your humbug heart with Christmas Radio, a cheery little number complete with choral backing singers and the distant chime of jingle bells. But not so much to make it gimmicky, The Demeanour manage to stay the right side of taste, a pitfall where so many others have foundered.
There may be a touch of the Mumfords about Sam Georgeson and Tom Watherston’s sound but it serves nicely on this track with the twang of a banjo adding an folky resonance to compliment Georgeson’s tone. It paints an altogether more wholesome picture in a Driving Home For Christmas kind of way – a Christmas tune totally removed from the commercialism of the season. The kind the superstores pounce upon to compliment their ruthless assault on the heartstrings in shameless advertising campaigns.
Beyond the festive season, The Demeanour have racked up quite a few tracks to appease this particular writer’s penchant for the folksy. Georgeson’s voice carries shades of Brandon Flowers which gives Wear My Blues and Empty Bed Space an oddly familiar feel, the easy listening quality that melts into your headspace and smoulders away without ever having to blow your mind in some explosive outburst to really grab your attention. Only Heaven Knows is one of the sweetest love songs we’ve heard flutter out of Merseyside this year.
