Some of my yearly Christmas music

• Quiet Company – Winter is Coming (YouTube, Spotify)
  A cozy EP with a small collection of holiday standards. O Holy Night is my favorite arrangement on it. Quiet Company was featured on Grooveshark back in 2011, and a year later they released this winter EP. It’s been on repeat every December since then. This year it’s the 13th time!
• John Rutter – Magnificat (YouTube, Spotify)
  Rutter’s Magnificat is one of my favorite pieces of contemporary classical music. It begins immediately with a sleigh ride through a snowy landscape. Listening to it is like watching a movie in my head, with a great mix of quiet scenes and energetic highlights. It’s big and cheerful and wintery, and it ends with a big bang. It’s typical for British composers, which are known for their sentimental and audience-friendly choral works. My music teacher once described them as taking all emotions in their hand and then shoving it right in your face.
• Coldplay – Christmas Light (YouTube, Spotify)
  One of those songs where the music immediately and always plays a little movie in my head. The chorus in the second half is reminiscent of the family singing together on Christmas Eve. You know, when the family sings together and the beginning of the chorus is a little bit slower because everyone is trying to keep up with everyone else.
• Spectre Morse – Last Christmas Together (Internet Archive)
  I wrote about this song in the intro to my post about backing up YouTube videos. The song has been removed from all platforms, but is still available through the Internet Archive. I like it because it has such a special atmosphere, with the faint street noise in the background that sounds a bit like a snare drum being brushed, the electric piano that sometimes crackles like a fireplace, and the reverb-y voice on top. It’s very happy-sad.
• Chris Rea – Driving Home for Christmas (YouTube, Spotify)
  Maybe I’m just be a cheesy guy, but Driving Home for Christmas is on repeat every year when I’m in my car driving home for Christmas. Of course, it’s not on repeat for the whole 2½ hour drive home, I’m not crazy, but usually at the beginning and end of the drive home to my parents.
• jschlatt – A Very 1999 Christmas (YouTube, Spotify)
  The newest addition because it was just released today. But I already listened to it several times today and it will definitely be on my annual December playlist. Like Winter is Coming, it has the usual holiday standards. Schlatt’s voice is just perfect for these Christmas songs. Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas is my favorite song on it so far. The arrangements have a very old school Disney feel to them.