It’s December and Bubble & Squeak (Girl Ray’s Poppy Hankin and The Boy Least Likely To’s Jof Owen) are here to get you in the festive spirit with a cracking hit called ‘The Christmas Stick’.
Released on Moshi Moshi, the slacker-style duet is in the vein of the label’s previous Christmas songs by artists including Slow Club and Summer Camp and has the feel-good wintry vibes of She & Him’s Yuletide songs. It opens with Poppy lamenting the fact that ‘Christmas can be a difficult time when you’re feeling alone. Sitting by the window with a box of mince pies, listening to Nat King Cole’. The two then meet and fall in love (after 12 days, of course) and celebrate all the romantic elements of the most wonderful time of the year: ‘You’ve been hit with the Christmas stick’; ‘There’s magic in the air, tinsel everywhere, it looks like it’s beginning to snow’; ‘I’ve really pulled a cracker this year’.
However, as with all good love stories, there are insecurities on show as Jof mentions: ‘You were scared that all your friends would be weird about us, but I was scared it wouldn’t last’ before they regale in their hopes for the future amidst a sleigh-full of handclaps, happiness and omnichord notes: ‘I never thought that this would be a Christmas hit. Oh baby, just imagine all the royalties that we’ll be living off one day’
