Wrapping: Girl in short red dress and white fur trim throws glance as coquettish as Sarah Cracknell’s voice.
Content: London trio have been releasing Christmas songs sporadically since 1993’s I Was Born On Christmas Day duet with The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess (included here). Now they coral eight songs from fan club CDs from ’93 to 2006 and add seven new recordings, ranging from languid acoustic reading of Chris Rea’s Driving Home For Christmas to party pop of 21st Century Christmas.
Style: Stylish as ever, Saint Etienne evoke French Sixties’ pop and Pet Shop Boys metropolitan disco with bells on and no Christian rhymes.
’Tis the reason to be jolly: Bob Stanley was born on Christmas Day.
Scrooge moan: Shame to confine this album’s limited-edition release to gigs and band’s website.
White Christmas? No, but Randy Newman’s hushed Snow and a Stanley & Wiggs wintry instrumental, Snowbound On The South Bank, are a dusting of the white stuff.
Blue Christmas? “There are few melancholy numbers, because sometimes we get sad too, y’know, but really it’s a celebration,” says birthday boy Stanley.
Stocking or shocking? Deserves to be glimpsed in stockings aplenty as best Christmas album of 2010.
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