I tend to avoid reviewing the dreaded “Christmas Song.” It’s not that the holidays turn me into some Grinch-like character or Dickensian penny pincher shouting “Humbug” at every opportunity…I’m actually like that all year round. It’s just that from the standpoint of sonic evolution and musical excellence, such songs rarely add anything to the musical landscape and by twelfth night find themselves in the bin with the pine needles and mince pie crumbs.
But I will make the exception for “Rocking’ Coal in My Stocking,” a Christmas offering from Effusion 35. As good as their blistering, rock-and-rolling rifferama is, their incendiary delivery, their singalongability, and sheer energy, it is the nature of the song, and the subversive sense of fun that wins me over.
Christmas songs are based on tropes and cliches; we all know that. But what would happen if you pushed your tongue firmly into your cheek and, as the title hints at, tried to cram them all, every damn one, into a four-and-a-half-minute sonic wig-out?
Well, this! That’s exactly what happens.
But why it works is that it is good-natured. Parody, they say, only works if the parodist understands and has affection for the subject matter, and here it is clear that Pat Manley means no harm; he’s just adding to the fun and the festivities in his own naughty way. And isn’t that what the spirit of Christmas is all about?
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