After spending twelve straight hours in an international airport, I can authoritatively say that we could use a few more new Christmas originals to give all those timeless classics a much needed rest. Seriously. You can rework “Holly Jolly Christmas” into reggae, Western swing, or house, but it doesn’t change the fact that at some point in the repetition, those melodies cross the threshold from charming familiarity to mentally degrading.
And who better to help tip the scales than Sloppy Scales? Tomorrow the Atlanta-based satirist shares his debut full-length This Machine Mocks Fascists: The Sloppy Scales Songbook, a nine-tune collection that clowns the nation’s far-right. Through infusions of Latin, blues rock, and countrypolitan formulas (on top of the obvious Woody Guthrie folk influence both lyrically and sonically) this society-scathing LP is better suited for Arthur Fleck than for Paggliacci.
So if you need some satire to spike your Yuletide spirit and spruce up your seasonal playlist, brings gifts of gospel, calypso, and soul to the manger with “Sweet Baby Jesus” – a brassy, percussion-driven, and hook-heavy slice of vapid midcentury spirituality.
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