Well, here it is... Merry Drift-Mas! The only yuletide playlist that you could need, or possibly get through.

A few years ago, a good pal of ours asked for an hour or so of 'weirdo Christmas music' that avoided getting too traditional or veering into glam rock. So, we gladly took a deep dive through hours and hours of 45s, the Lomax Library, tasty soundtracks and other seasonal routes to put together a couple of hours of festive (adjacent) stunners. The first iteration had a low-running theme of cutting loose, getting caught, making amends and still making it home in time for mince pies and one last drink. After several years of refining, Merry Drift-Mas now clocks in at over nine hours and is a cornucopia of seasonal oddities and boozy treasures.

Featuring: Ralph Willis, Tom Waits, Donald Byrd, Glenn Jones, The Kingstonians, Felix Gross, Nina Nina, Wings, Mae West, Binky Griptite, Prince Buster, Funk Machine, Bobby Nunn, Boris Karloff, plenty of Vince Guaraldi and a huge number of other yuletide treats.

Hit play below or save it for the big day with this link.





So the elephant in the room is that Spotify is largely - as a company - contemptible. They had the ability to fundamentally change how music is serviced to people and ensure that creators and music makers were looked after, but they instead have just gone for the money and invested it in very troubling ways. Awful stuff. One day we'll find a better way to put together this sort of thing (no, Apple and Tidal are not any better), but right now, please enjoy this playlist guilt-free as the vast majority of the artists featured are not chasing the meagre royalty payments. Something has to change though...