Funny looking angels

One of the things about music that I love is its ability to transform "the time and the place" that you're in.

I had such an experience this week.

Wednesday morning, while getting ready for work, I happened across a TV interview with Tom Smith from the Editors and Andy Burrows who used to be in Razorlight. They were discussing their "Christmas" album, Funny Looking Angels, which has just been released and they played parts of the video for the main single "When the Thames Froze".

I was amazed. This is a genuine new Christmas hit single and deserves to be the Christmas No 1 (except I also want the Army wives to be No 1 too). It evokes modern day images of Britain but with a nod and a wink to Victorian Christmas scenes and finishes with a wonderful refrain about having "hope in your heart" and telling everyone if you have. The music is piano driven with a brass arrangement and thus has a hint of "Fairytale of New York" to it. It builds majestically and the ending should have you singing along, particularly if in a party/friends environment. A new Christmas classic, just when you thought all we had to look forward to was the X Factor winner's latest cover version.

The even better news is that the album is as good.  This too has a strong Christmas theme, starting with a beautiful stripped back version of "In the bleak mid-winter", which is followed by "When the Thames Froze".

Next up is "As the snowflakes fall" an Andy Burrows written pop song, piano and drums based, with a sixties feel to it and is fun. This is then followed by a cover of a song by indie band Delta, which is  the title track. This is an upbeat sing along version, backed by sax and  Phil Spector big but not deafening drums. It reminds me of "Never let her slip away" by Andrew Gold for feel.

Two more well known covers follow. Firstly "Wonderful Life" the Black song. A little more up beat than the original but faithful to it and it uses, acoustic guitar, violins and a background drum/hand-clap rhythm. Tom Smith's voice is perfect for this song. The play on words with the title and the Christmas film of the same name means it fits the overall mood superbly.

The second cover is "Only You" a Christmas Number one for The Flying Pickets and originally by Yazoo. This version has a "we will rock you" drum hand clap backing too (Burrows is after all a drummer!) but takes the best bits the two other versions to create a worthy version in its own right.

With both these covers versions, if you had never heard the originals they would be great tracks in their own right.

The final cover is of the Longpigs "On and on", which I didn't know, but is again a great song well produced, again piano, brass and harmonies to the fore.

The last three tracks bring us back to Christmas again. First up is "Rosslyn" an instrumental that at one point had vocals and lyrics, but was felt best left without either. Piano and orchestra based it'll be on an advert soon!

The last original song is "This ain't New Jersey" which doffs it's cap very firmly at Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus is coming to Town". It's a conversation between a couple arguing over Christmas, who are snowed in and fall out over whether "Santa Claus" or "Father Christmas" is coming to town. The dialogue also has a touch of Meat Loaf to it, the music drives along with again Phil Spector drums and as an added Christmas bonus, tubular bells!

The album finishes with a cover of "The Christmas Song" which Tom Smith starts and then leads into a beautiful version when he is joined by by Danish singer Agnes Obel. It ends the album with that warm glow with which a Christmas album should leave you.