Los Campesinos!
A Los Campesinos! Christmas

Assuming that you don’t live in a squatter’s shack on Grouse Mountain, Christmas songs don’t make a hell of a lot of sense in these parts. It’s never a goddamn marshmallow world in Vancouver and there are no whipped-cream days; instead, you maybe get two hours of sleet in early December followed by a 72-hour brown-slush shitshow. Folk-punk vets Los Campesinos! aren’t from around here, but that doesn’t stop them from capturing the grey spirit of a West Coast Christmas on this refreshingly nonsugarcoated six-song EP. Hang your soaking stockings by the chimney, grab the Ardbeg, and sing along while Gareth Campesinos! intones “Christmas Eve, torrential rain/One single snowflake on this plain” during the chiming, proudly DIY “When Christmas Comes”. In the world of Los Campesinos!, the snowman is made out of mud and wet leaves, and if you’ve lived in Vancouver longer than two months, you’ll have no trouble relating.