Stuff I'm Listening To - The Christmas Advent Edition - December 15th

Artist: Erasure

Title: She Won't Be Home

Lyrics:

And I wanted to say to you
How much I want to be with you
I wanted to say to you
How much I need to be with you

Christmas time comes once a year
She knows this time he won't be near

 
Why?:
Erasure laid the teary sentiments on super thick with this song. Remember how I said that a sad story song will just be that much more emotional if you use Christmas as a backdrop? Yeah. 

I get a bit annoyed by the lyrics of this song though. I mean... all the lovely wonderful sentiments are there, but why put so much pressure on Christmas? If I'm going to visit friends and family, any time of the year should be ok and should be just as meaningful. A lot of the memories associated with my Christmas tree ornaments have more to do with my friends and family than the holiday itself. If Christmas is going to be a time for family and friends, and those family and friends can't be with you, then it should be a time of quiet reflection and remembrance of fun times of long ago and fun times to come.

Honestly, this song is three and a half minutes of great synth-pop and it makes it's way onto my regular playlist often. Instrumentally, it's a nice pop piece. And then Andy Bell's beautiful voice... he's definitely a choir boy all grown up. I've always loved his voice and I think it lends itself wonderfully to Christmas songs. They did a beautiful rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" on their Crackers International Part 2 album (linked below). And actually put out a Christmas album which I was today years old when I discovered this (hangs head in shame).