Most Christmas albums are a waste of digital recording space used to massacre classics (looking at you Bon Jovi) or awkwardly cash in by gruesomely sewing holiday trappings on otherwise standard band fare (I see you Erasure). Hearts of Animals has done what few other bands have managed to accomplish. They actually wrote a regular album that just happens to be about Christmas, and it is exactly the disaffected scream of despair to top of 2020.
Recorded remotely by the individual members over Zoom in August,
Merry Christmas Anyway is a potent combination of the band’s trademark pop punk pep and a healthy dose of “fuck this year.” It’s kind of like a Christmas cookie with powerful hallucinogens baked in. From start to finish it both celebrates the holiday while also fully acknowledging that this is the last gasp of a terrible year.
A holiday playlist for even the grinchiest at heart.
By
Chris Gray
12/23/2020 at 10:39am
For anyone struggling to get into the Christmas spirit, Hearts of Animals is here to help.
Merry Christmas Anyway, the Houston indie mainstayâs new eight-song release, will make an ideal digital stocking-stuffer for anyone who can relate to the lyric, âChristmastime is a punishment for everyone alive.â
Fittingly, the woman who wrote that line has been contending with Christmas music for most of her life. Mlee Marie Mains, founder and driving force behind Hearts of Animals, grew up with musician parents. âChristmas music was always a really big deal in my house,â she recalls. In college, she wrote a Christmas song every year or so until there was enough for an album, which she released in 2012 as