White Christmas

It being Christmas, and all, and me not having a telly at the moment, the chance to see a "classic" seasonal film at the cinema is a bit of a treat. Usually that film would have to be "It's a Wonderful Life", which is and always shall be the definitive filmic example of hope, joy and good will to all men - and a bloody good film to boot! It was showing in Edinburgh, at two different venues, no less, but there was also a bit more choice out there this year, and, having no memory of actually ever seeing it in its entirety, thought I'd chance my arm with White Christmas.

Starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as army buddies who strike up a successful variety act post WWII, it is a loosely scripted showcase for a few big song and dance numbers, with a cue for a croon never far away. Early on it is Kaye who shines and pleases with his ever perfect comic timing and ineffable likability. There are some nice, familiar songs in there, outside of the big one, which bookends the film, such as Blue Skies and Sisters, but, on the whole, there is too much down time and duff tunes to make it a real winner - you have to wait forever for the big payoff of the title song at the end, and by that time you kinda just want to head outside and check if it's snowing for real, instead of going through any more closed lip kissing and tits and teeth dance routines.

What struck me most is what different times we live in now... The sexual politics and male dominance of 50's American society is cringingly evident, and the bit where Bing lights his trademark pipe inside a Vermont ski-lodge and blows a massive cloud of smoke right in his "loved one's" face, without her so much as blinking, comes across as pure comedy. Add to that one song: "Snow" that has to be the worst song ever written for a film musical and the overall experience is more likely to invoke childish giggles than warm fuzziness.

Saying that, when Bing finally gets to sing the showstopper it is hard not to admire his skill and the sentiment that has made it such a perennial favourite for half a century. It put me in the mood for something - just not too sure it was Christmas...?

Fleet Foxes

Seattle has produced its fair share of decent bands over the last few decades, and a lot of terrible ones too! Fortunately, Fleet Foxes are well and truly adding to the former category. They describe themselves as "Baroque harmonic pop jammers", which makes some kind of sense, I suppose - they are very harmonic, not un-pop and curiously not shy of a bit of baroque-ness...

Annoyingly, I stumbled upon them two days after they happened to play a small-ish gig down the road in Glasgow, which several of my friends went to without telling me! Their debut album, the eponymous Fleet Foxes (well done boys, always good to get to use "eponymous" in a sentence) came shortly after a well received EP called Sun Giant - the two pieces together instantly making them the must listen to band of the moment.

The immediate impression is of something very listenable, that rocks in a very mellow and melodic way - a bit like Kings of Leon if they all calmed down, stopped growling and had some nice herbal tea! Lead singer Robin Pecknold's voice is just hauntingly beautiful (and I hear this is true live also), and there are enough acoustic instruments scattered throughout each track to give it all a very other-worldly feel, which... yes, I'm going to say it: reminds me a lot of the best stuff prog-rock had to offer - early Genesis or Yes, perhaps.

Several goes around later and you are more than hooked on a few tunes and their general vibe in, errrr, general! The first single (track 2 on the album) White Winter Hymnal is just genius! I love it! It reached a dozen on my play counter without any trouble at all and is still notching them up. But it's far from a one trick pony - as is always a good sign, the tracks you weren't so bothered about at first emerge as favourites later on. It is rich and rewarding in many ways - and I predict that by their sophomore album effort they will be unfeasibly popular. Quite simply, one of my favourite albums of the year.