Funny Looking Angels

Christmas albums – they’re raining down like punches at an office party fistfight! Alongside seasonal missives from She & Him (cute, predictable) and Tim Wheeler and Emmy The Great (cute, not predictable) the latest glamour couple to (figuratively) don novelty Santa hats and invite you to join them ‘neath the mistletoe (again, figuratively) are Editors’ Tom Smith and former Razorlight drummer and songwriter Andy Burrows. Unlikely though the hook-up sounds, there’s genuine chemistry between the pair, Smith’s doleful Joy Division-isms making surprising sense alongside Burrows’ balmy west-coast-isms. Covers dominate and it’s to their credit that the duo manage to breathe fresh life into such standards as Black’s ‘Wonderful Life’, which Smith renders spectral and tingly. Meanwhile Burrows is good value on a minimalist rendering of Yazzo’s ‘Only You’ and Danish chamber-popstress Agnes Obel pops up for a duet with Smith on a plaintive version of ‘The Christmas Song’, as made famous by Nat King Cole. There are some great originals too – ‘As The Snowflakes Fall’ manages – result! – to be both a tender reminder of that Christmas is really about (family, not presents silly) and a soulful shout out to the Occupy Dame Street/Wall Street/St Pauls’ mob. Lovely.