If Tom Waits straightened up, stepped back in line, joined the mainstream, and decided to create a Christmas song, this might be what it would sound like. More than just the wonderfully gruff vocals, it is a beautiful antidote to the auto-tuned and saccharine sentiments that are the norm this time of year.
On the surface, it is a celebration of a significant other whose presence, and indeed presence, in their life makes it…wait for it…Christmas All Year. But this is no ordinary Christmas caper, and as the lyrics send us down more intimate and even adult pathways, you realize that BB Stevens is good at creating his own suggestive signature sonic sauce—a wonderful blend of the profound and the profane, a musical dance of wit and wisdom.
This is what we need at this time of year. After all, there have been few genuinely memorable Christmas songs (we salute you, Mr MacGowan). I’m not talking about popularity here; there are plenty of throwaway tunes already. No, I’m talking about songs that are well-crafted, funny, poignant, and subversive. Christmas All Year certainly falls into that territory.
BB Stevens has been in the game long; he knows what he is doing. There is no need to pile more unnecessary drear and dross on top of the existing canon of seasonal songs; it is better, surely, to invent your own genre – suggestive Santa songs, festive flirts, candid crooning – call it what you want, all I know is having BB Steven’s, our own Sugar Pun Fairy, on the case is a welcome addition to the real spirit of Christmas.
