Following the success of her debut album, Downstruck, the independent singer-songwriter EMRYS has launched her refreshing antithesis of a Christmas EP, Christmas Songs 4 Sad People.
For anyone who can see through the capitalistic ploy the festive season has become and are reluctant to feign superficial joy because the calendar demands it, the five singles on the compassionately quaint EP will prove that you’re not alone in your seasonal pessimism.
After the harp strings in track one, Merry Christmas to the Miserable, have lulled you into a state of catharsis and assured you that you’re not isolated in your misery, EMRYS utilises her 2020 single, Christmas Will Be Silent This Year, to take us back to the frustrations of COVID deniers waving restrictions to celebrate a holiday as though it’s their God-given right.
Not Great, But Grateful is an exposition of what it means to be grateful while enduring a not-so-perfect life with humble grace. Serotonin for Christmas is a haunting reflection of how consumerism does little to quell the pain of mental health issues.
The concluding single, O Lonely Night, is a quiescently orchestral lullaby which instrumentally encapsulates the phenomenon of Christmas amplifying the isolation for anyone not at the centre of a picture-perfect nuclear family.
From start to finish, the EP is a gracefully elevated release, which definitively proves that true artistic beauty always lies in quirky creative autonomy. As someone who shares a similar mindset to EMRYS, I can fully attest to how seminal the EP is. Amanda Palmer couldn’t have said it better.
Christmas Songs 4 Sad People is now available to stream on Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast