the boy least likely to | Christmas Special

Most Likely To: be the soundtrack to next year’s holiday commercials.

If ever a band was likely to record a Christmas album, it’s the boy least likely to. Even in non-holiday mode, their Belle and Sebastian-in-footy-pajamas twee pop sounds like Whos jamming on their pantookas and wuzzles with the Grinch up on Mt. Crumpet thinking, “You know, this doesn’t sound so bad at all.” Their music is joyously childlike without being childish, and there’s nothing children of all ages love more than Christmas. So it’s only natural that Jof and Pete would be itching to unleash holiday joy on the world.

And unleash it they do. The majority of Christmas Special is made up of boy least likely to originals, but they sound like classic standards on the very first listen. The band applies their patented aural sugar rush to all the old roasted chestnuts of Christmas music – being apart at the holidays, putting up the tree, building a snowman, the Virgin Mary’s donkey – and comes up with a winning collection of tunes, any and all of which could catch on and become holiday traditions.

At the very least, it’ll be a surprise the size of the Bumble if advertisers don’t descend on this album like the Cratchetts on a Christmas goose and pick it’s carcass clean for next year’s crop of Christmas advertisements. the boy least likely to have managed to capture the spirit of the best Christmas music, combining joy and melancholy with catchy tunes which could instantly put one in the holiday spirit (and therefore more susceptible to buying that snowflake sweater from Kohl’s).

Musically, the boy least likely to doesn’t stint on the twee. “Blue Spruce Needles” mixes banjo with synthesized strings and high pitched harmonies, while “Little Donkey” is just begging to be included in Sunday School Christmas programs, with little Timmy playing its recorder riff and just generally being adorable. “George and Andrew” cheekily lifts the sound of “Last Christmas” to pay tribute to Wham!.

Christmas Special is easily the best indie-rock Christmas release since Sufjan Stevens’ Songs For Christmas. Jof and Pete obviously share Stevens’ love for the holiday and have a style uniquely suited to celebrate it. This is the soundtrack to visions of sugar plums dancing in children’s heads.

Watch the (hilarious) video for “George and Andrew”: