It’s been such a strange year and in the spirit of togetherness and community, we’re going to be counting down to Christmas by sharing a selection of our – and our friends’ – favorite festive songs. Today, our friend Matt Phelps has picked ‘It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop’ by Frightened Rabbit.
“It’s Christmas so we’ll stop
‘Cause the wine on our breath puts the love in our tongues
So forget the names
I called you on Christmas Eve
In fact forget the entire year”
‘Everyone loves a bit of melancholy at Christmas, right? And few bands do melancholy better than Glasgow’s finest, Frightened Rabbit. Scott Hutchison was one of those rare songwriters who transformed tragedy, bitterness and raw honesty into lyrical and musical beauty.
Having been enamoured with the band since discovering ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ in 2008, I first heard ‘It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop’ around Christmas 2009 when I was in a pretty bad relationship, so the lyrics very much resonated with me. A decade later and, on a personal level, things are a lot better than they seemed back then, but this song still has a special place in my Christmas heart. Not least because the world is a poorer place now that Scott is no longer in it, and this for my money is one is of his most poignant offerings.
As with much of Scott’s lyrical content, there’s an underlying sadness to it all, with the proposal of a one-day emotional ceasefire (“we can be best friends with the people we hate”) hardly the most joyous of Christmas messages. He manages quite a balancing act between hope and dejection, but ultimately reminds us that Christmas is not a happy time for everyone and in fact the all-consuming feeling of enforced joy at this time of year can make it even harder for some. Whatever happens though, at least we have this opportunity each year to be that bit kinder to one another, and that’s something we all need to hang onto right now.’
Also, do check out the B-side ‘choir version’ which is basically the isolated backing vocal track or, even better, watch the video of drummer Grant conducting choir in vigorous fashion!
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