While there have – mercifully – been few Christmas songs in circulation so far this year (and we’re only five weeks away from it – Praise the Lord!) I suppose I couldn’t ignore it any longer and had to succumb sometime.
So here is the first of what I fear could be many, and it’s from a ‘super group’ no less – Sunturns – which today comprises members from five bands, some of which are already known to us – Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva.
They’ve been around in various guises since the early 2000s, arising out of the Oslo indie pop scene of that era and their party piece is playing gigs only at Christmas.
This is their third Christmas album (where have I been?) ‘Christmas III’, coming out in December and the third single from it is ‘Crash Course Christmas’; one that perhaps we all need to take.
They say the album songs, written by three of the members, hone in on the more ambivalent sides of Christmas – family, customs and the passing of time – with an eye also towards the critical function in these Nordic countries of getting through the cold and dark days to celebrate the winter solstice and the ‘turning’ of the sun, hence the band name. (Always my favourite day, I might add).
Influences include Sufjan Stevens’ ‘Songs for Christmas’ and Phil Spector’s ‘wall of sound’ classic ‘A Christmas gift from you’.
To be fair Sunturns’ own producer Sjur Lyseid does get close to the Spector level on this song, which comes in with all guns blazing at the speed the kids go downstairs to find out what Santa has left for them and then settles down into that lazy, contented, feet up, glass of wine in hand, happy as a pig in s*** sound that is so becoming of The Polyphonic Spree, and with the appropriate level of instrumentation.
If there is a vinyl edition (and I do believe there is), the album might find its way under more Christmas trees than Santa can handle without putting the elves on overtime.
Sunturns reconvene again in December for their annual Oslo show, complete with a string section and choir at Parkteatret on the 13th of December, and they play London’s The Shacklewell Arms on December 1st.
Sunturns are:
Ola Innset: Vocals, guitar, banjo
Sjur Lyseid – Vocals, guitars
Einar Stray – Vocals, keyboards, guitars
Eivind Almhjell – Guitars, bass
Jørgen Nordby – Drums.
Find them on:
Website (Label page): https://fikarecordings.com/artists/sunturns
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sunturns
