Lee Feather and The Night Movers’ “Drugs for Christmas” is a whimsically dark holiday tale, blending playful mischief with off-kilter storytelling. Capturing late-night city wanderings, intoxicated revelry, and tender seasonal intimacy all in one package, the track offers a refreshingly poetic alternative to the usual Christmas canon, full of wit, warmth, and evocative narrative charm.
Twinkling keys and gentle, swaying acoustic strums craft a dreamily absorbing introduction — seasonal-sounding in its glistening keys, though within a folk-laden guitar presence that’s inviting in its calming familiarity. One may anticipate tales of mistletoe-laden love and holiday warmness thereafter — and that feeling seems present in the “I love you” duetting chorus, though the verses largely exude a grit that’s in enjoyable contrast to the holiday season’s oft-saccharine qualities. “I got given love for Christmas, it came from the middle of a little pill,” the vocals let out. “Never seen your lips so red, the city at a crawl.”
“I got given drugs for Christmas, and wandered into the empty street,” the vocals continue in subsequent verses, now complemented by forlorn strings and sporadic trumpet that add seamlessly to the steady acoustic strums and sleighbell-like presence. The holiday-set tale of finding oneself, even if it’s under an intoxicated haze, makes for a resonating impact as the steady vocal melodics and seasonal folk invitations combine for a Christmas treat of a track from Lee Feather and the Night Movers.
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
