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If you want to know how to get my attention, pay attention to The Good The Bad’s PR: a week or so back I received through the post a couple of items from them. One was a three CD ‘steampunk psychedelia esoteric pop opera’, which sounds like it should be at the very least a ridiculous diversion, and possibly just about the best idea ever. Still, it was the other item that grabbed my ears first.

You see, if you use the words ‘channels the spirit of’ and follow them with Ennio Morricone – that’ll get you my curiousity. But if you write that a band channels the spirit of Ennio Morricone AND Phil Spector. Well then. Now you have my attention.

The Good The Bad are not an act I’d come across before. Their name is intensely annoying, from a pedant’s perspective. The only band member’s name I can pronounce with any confidence is ‘The Adam’. Which is not something you call yourself unless you’re at least a bit of a dick. The front cover of From 034 To 050 features emotionless naked ladies and a leopard. Their insistence on numbering their tracks instead of naming them means that I cannot recommend a single individual track to you. The artwork is bright, ugly and, one suspects, a little sexist.

But my god, the music. This is an album to own. This is an album, I suspect, to own on vinyl. I cannot say that with any certainty – my birthday is December 13th, though, Jamie the PR man – but I can say it with some confidence. From 034-050 is unrelenting, exquisite instrumental guitar rock. And that, I have to say, is a sentence I never thought I’d utter.

Reasons why The Good The Bad’s new album is seventeen times better than everything about it suggests it should be:

1. It really does channel the spirit of Ennio Morricone and Phil Spector.

2. There’s also a good chunk of Beach Boys thrown into the mix for good measure.

3. If ‘Tarantino’ was a genre, this would be a pioneer in the field.

4. Dammit, the chunky, near-psychedelic guitars will get you dancing.

5. THESE GUYS ARE DANISH. And they’re rocking out with tunes that sound like a movie score co-written by The Bees and The Dandy Warhols.

They’ve made it a challenge for themselves, but The Good The Bad have won me over. From 034 to 050 is out on CD and vinyl from November 12th. This is music made for impressing your friends with. Danish surf-western instrumental psychedelic rock. That’s a good a starting point as any.

Feminism is literally everywhere today. EVERYWHERE. Apparently it’s International Women’s Day or something. Everyone’s celebrating international women. I saw an old Japanese lady on the bus earlier and I shook her hand. “Well done,” I said. “On being a woman.”

There’s always been this sort of feeling towards feminism that plays out very well for people who don’t want to put the effort in to ‘letting everyone be equal’. I’ll admit, I’ve accidentally read a bit of feminist literature recently in the form of Tina Fey and Caitlin Moran’s autobiographies. It’s my own fault – you’d have thought that the latter book being titled ‘How To Be A Woman’ would have been a clue.

Nevertheless, it’s kind of opened my eyes to all the fallacies of perceived feminism. The man hating. Feminists don’t hate men. I’ve learnt that now. Or, at least, I’ve learnt that if they do hate men it’s normally because we’re being dicks, or because we keep telling them to keep up but we haven’t had to march around London in these three inch heels for the past six hours thankyouverymuch.

The best bit is that I don’t have to do anything different to be a feminist! I just have to continue grimacing whenever a smarmy MP patronises a woman. I just have to continue thinking Chris Brown is a dick. THIS WILL NOT BE A CHALLENGE AT ALL.

Our inaugural Hg Prize winner Emmy the Great has been celebrating women today in the only way any of us know how – musically. She’s posted a Spotify playlist of her own construction for the world to hear and this Sunday she’ll be playing some of her own songs with an all female string section down on the South Bank in London.

We’ve been celebrating in our own special way – listening to songs from that era of 90s pop where everyone started singing about being a girl. Beyoncé, in her various guises, has had four or five massive hits about being a self-reliant and strong woman. It’s weird to see that the pioneers of 90s Girl Power – the Spice Girls – didn’t really have any songs about the concept itself. But then, like all the best feminist pop acts – Blondie, Peaches, The Pretenders, the first and third incarnations of Sugababes – Spice Girls spoke out through simply being people rather than directly through their music.

It’s that sort of approach to life that it’d be good to see the music world adopt as a whole – feminist or otherwise.

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon here in the deepest corner of rural Norfolk. I’ve retreated back to the family homestead for the weekend – partly to see my family, partly to relax after London’s civic apocalypse last week. There’s not been all too much happening on We Write Lists recently – blame work, laziness and a temporary stumble over the writer’s block. Or maybe we’ll just claim I was on summer holiday.

But we return in full force soon, I promise. Six Albums returns to its weekly slot on Friday with a post written by Treetop Flyers. Hg Prize nominee Aaron Wright is interviewed by us. We have some of the best bands ever playing our upcoming Folkroom gigs (this Wednesday sees Laura Hocking simultaneously headline and steal a hundred hearts). We have something very special in the works, but you’ll hear more on that soon.

So consider this our apology, and our promise. Our promise that we’ll be back real soon. Right after the barbecue, and reading in the garden, and listening to this Stornoway record again, and sleeping on the grass, and counting the ladybirds and playing with the hose while we water the flowers and…. we’ll be back soon, we promise.

A while back we were starting out on our Folkroom gigs, trawling the internets for new folk bands that excited us enough to warrant putting them on a stage in an old Victorian boozer. One of our favourite acts was a 16 year-old girl with a ukelele going by the name of Misty Miller. We tried to get her, and for a while it looked like she was going to play, but scheduling conflicts arose and the next time we came to book her there she sat, in the newspapers, album out, the 16 year-old girl with the uke who had been featured in Italian Vogue. We missed a boat, sure, but listen to Miller’s debut album and you’ll be hard pressed to hold it against her… we tried to make up for missing out on her earlier by getting a Six Albums post. This time, we succeeded.

It’s rare that I find an album that I can play front to back and enjoy it all. I don’t usually buy albums, I’m more of a song kinda girl most of the time. But when I do find an album that I love.. it’s the best thing!

Robyn – Body Talk I bought Robyn’s first album about 3 years ago and absolutely loved it! Almost every song! She writes such great melodies and I really enjoy the music too. I’d never gotten into her kinda of style before. Over the past few years, Robyn released the Body Talk trilogy which I didn’t know much about, until I heard ‘Dancing On My Own’. I bought the most recently released version with all the best from the trilogy plus a couple more, and I LOVE it! I was so excited for it, and it was even better than her first! I’m a true fan. And this is an album I can play (and have played over and over!) and still enjoy. I cant wait to see her live.

Dan Sartain – Dan Sartain vs The Serpentines My brother leant me this album one day, it took me a little while to really get into, but I remember it sounding so fresh. A sound that I was drawn to straight away. I only liked a couple of songs at first, but it’s one of those albums that I kept coming back to at different stages and ultimately loved it all. It definitely inspired me with my songwriting and developing a sound. I first heard it about 4 years ago, and I still listen to it today. The songs are just so good, and timeless! Angry and raw. An album which I will always come back to.

The Moldy Peaches – The Moldy Peaches Another CD leant to me from my brother. It took me seconds to get into this album. It’s quirky production adds to the immense character in each track. It’s not only fun but expressive to listen to, great for my teenage years! The ballads work perfectly for that young love mood and the harder, louder tracks have so much personality that I found the whole album really addictive. I just love the songs and they way they are played. Like the other five, it’s one of those records I haven’t got bored of yet.

Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York I have always loved Nirvana. I really got into them when I was about 13. I started listening to grungier music… Jesus and Mary Chain, The Sex Pistols and Nirvana. All of their albums starting from Bleach onwards, I enjoyed. But it was their unplugged album that shone. I think because it showed the magic of their songs, the way they played and how Kurt performed. When in doubt, I pretend I’m Kurt Cobain. Although they did a few covers, each one they interestingly made their own. Definitely an influential album for me.

Stars - Set Yourself On Fire Again, a CD my brother leant me.. but when I was a bit younger, around 10 or 11. I think, like all these albums, the thing that made me choose them for my top 6 was my instant and long lasting attraction to them. I feel a bit nostalgic when I listen to the songs off this album, I have loved them for such a long time I feel like they are engraved in me. The songs are great, I could listen to them all now and it wouldn’t bore me. This was their best album in my eyes. It’s filled with so many different flavors and brilliant instrumentation. ‘Your Ex Lover Is Dead’ is definitely worth a listen!

Karen O And The Kids – Where The Wild Things Are OST I have a thing for movie soundtracks, my iTunes is filled with them. This album is the most recent out of my 6. Have only had it for a little over a year, but I know that I will be listening to it and loving it as much as I do now for years to come. It makes me smile and can bring me to tears! Really taps in to the child inside. And is one of the only predominantly instrumental albums that I have ever really gotten in to. Karen O did an amazing job with it, she got the mood so right. She and whoever produced it with her were wonderfully sensitive to the music. An inspiring album in more ways than one.

Misty Miller’s self-titled debut is out now, and is really rather wonderful. Which makes sense, really, considering it involves a ukelele.

Four days. That’s how long you’ve got to prepare yourselves. Next Wednesday the Folkroom brings one of the most innovative nights we’ve yet presented. We’re bringing to London the first showcase from Buckinghamshire collective The Clockwork Club – a group of artists working out of the Milton Keynes area, making free music and now, courtest of the Folkroom, playing free gigs!

Opening our Clockwork Folkroom is Hugo Williams -a folk-punk artist who has been writing with other members of The Club since his teens. Following him is Moses Melkonian, who plays a rare breed of folk-step. And to headline, Charlie B. Costello – owner of perhaps the most surprisingly soulful voice you’ll ever hear at the Folkroom. Together The Clockwork Club invade the Folkroom for one night only, an unmissable chunk of experimental (and thoroughly excellent) folk-tinged music.

So yeah. The Folkroom at The Queen’s Head (that’s 66 Acton Street for all you address-fiends), this Wednesday, from 8pm. BAM. See you there.

He stands in his press shots like everyone else. All the other singer-songwriters, at least. Looking back to the camera, head bedraggled by tangled hair, hidden in part behind a perfectly formed beard. Vocally Josh Bray is not all that different either – remarkably similar in timbre to Ray Lamontagne, perhaps. But there’s something about him – the soul that oozes from each word lucky enough to escape his lips, maybe. Or the slow but unstoppable sort of nature inherent in his music. We can’t quite put our finger on what it is, but Josh Bray is anything but everyone else. He’s something a little bit special, and we grabbed him for this week’s Six Albums to investigate a little further just what makes him tick:

Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine This album more than any got me interested in the idea that not all is as it seems in the world and that the manner in which we live is crucially important. No other band is so wonderfully engaged in promoting awareness on important human rights topics, the hypocrisy of our governments, the dangers of capitalism and the pain that sleeping through life can cause, not from any malevolence on an individual level, but simply from the fact that our way of life is so good because we walk in the rarefied air of privilege by treading on the heads of the poor and disenfranchised; as they so eloquently put it. WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream THIS is a wonderfully schizophrenic album with heavy rock elements combining seamlessly with beautifully sparse, psychedelia something that would come to be a hallmark of the Pumpkin’s style. It’s also chock full of singles like Cherub Rock, Today, Soma etc… This was the soundtrack to my adolescence and is a showcase for Billy Corgan’s supreme song writing talent. Anthem after anthem for doomed youth.

Led Zeppelin – IV This album was, for me, the transition from the above sorts of bands into the world of folk and blues music. Songs like ‘Battle for Evermore’ showcasing not just Robert Plant but also the singularly beautiful singing voice of Sandy Denny, then of Fairport Convention. (I had also heard a great live version of this song by Lovemongers) IV also contains the greatest rock drumming ever recorded by the late great Bonzo Bonham on ‘When the Levee Breaks’. The album continues the folkier foundation that was laid by Led Zep III, which contained a couple of re-arranged traditional songs and a nod to Roy Harper (whose album Stormcock narrowly missed this list) So, a band, traditionally regarded as a hard rock outfit opened my eyes to a world inhabited by many of the artists that eventually came to inspire me to take my first steps towards song writing. Plus, it’s Zep and ‘Stairway’ is on this album! It’s a no brainer!

Van Morrison – Astral Weeks One of the most beautiful albums ever written. With jazz, blues and traditional stylings blended into what must, at the time, have sounded ridiculously fresh and exciting. Van (and producer Lewis Merenstein) at his very best. Contains a healthy dose of nostalgia for a real and imagined past as a place of comfort in a bleak era. Its stories, messages and meaning remain fluid, coming as they do from a conjured place from within ’68 Van’s apparently searching soul and as such stay significant.

John Martyn – Solid Air Just the thought of John Martyn gives me a wee lump in the throat. Pathetic I know but it’s the same lump I get when I hear Churchill speak or hear tales of bravery, sacrifice and loyalty. It’s men and women doing people proud and not skipping a beat along the way. I appreciate this may sound strange but it’s my list and I love the Big Muff. The lack of pretence, the connection he creates and the joy he clearly feels when his up there doing his thing is sublime. He is one of us and he wants nothing else than to be there with us, helping us along the way and making it that bit easier and more lovely by his presence.

Little Feat – Dixie Chicken If ever an album could carry the label ‘cool’ this is it. It drips from every hook, lick and beat. Lowell George has to be one of my all time favourite songwriters and one of the subtlest (JJ Cale being the other) lead players ever, armed as always with his trusty pinky slide. This was Feat at their very best, bolstered with the recent addition of Paul Barrere and Sam Clayton. Highlights are the title track ‘Dixie Chicken’, ‘Fat man in the Bathtub’ and a bad ass cover of Allen Toussaint’s ‘On your way Down’ .

Josh Bray’s debut album, Whisky and Wool, is out now, and it’s just as warm and cosy as the title suggests. Buy it, or I’ll come round your house and ruddy make you.*

*Not strictly true.

Last week, while we were holed up in Birmingham seeing how much steak we could get on company expenses, Glastonbury announced their Emerging Talent longlist – 123 acts chosen by 40 of the UK’s finest bloggers. Naturally we took interest in the announcement – we were lucky enough to be one of the judges – and we especially glad to see some of our favourite new folk acts (including several Folkroom players and a future Six Albums guest) popping up in the other judge’s choices. So congratulations to Emily and the Woods, Laura Hocking, Gibson Bull, Tristram and Dems, who aren’t so much folk as mega-awesome. We picked three of our own choices – our favourites from the many acts we had to whittle down. Let us take you through the three acts we chose, and explain our choices:

The Sunshine Theory (http://thesunshinetheory.bandcamp.com/): We loved the understated melancholy of The Sunshine Theory’s music, the way Tom and Sam compliment each other and their ability to sound at once familiar and new. Check out ‘Dancing For Two’, and you’ll see what we mean!

The Fallen Drakes (http://thefallendrakes.bandcamp.com/): Amongst the hundred and fifty-odd acts we listened to over the judging period, none compared to The Fallen Drakes in terms of professionality – a sound so at ease with current pop-rock trends, an understanding of the business and the most stylish EP cover we’ve seen by an unsigned act in a long while.

Lund Quartet (http://www.lundquartet.com/audio.html): Jazz is a hard thing to get right. Believe us, we’ve tried. Still got the kazoo to prove it. But Lund Quartet know what they’re doing, and tracks like ‘Lonn’ mark them apart from many of their contemporaries.

Check out the full longlist here before the shortlist of 8 is announced in the next few days – those eight will compete live at the Pilton Working Men’s Club with the winner opening the Pyramid Stage at Glasto this year!

Emily Barker made her first appearance on WWL when we interviewed her way back in October last year, but Monday saw the release of her second album, Almanac, and we thought we’d bring her back to the site to take us through the new record in our irregular feature Tracklistings…

Billowing Sea is about the end of a relationship when you realise you’ve put everything you can into trying to save it only to have it blow up in your face anyway. It’s also about seeing the positives that come from this sort of loss. It rejoices and celebrates the freedom that follows and embraces the change.

Reckless is set on the southern Cornish coastline near Gorran Haven. It’s about new beginnings, taking risks, resetting your hopes high after a fall, breathing in salt air, rejuvenating and inviting the next stage.

Ropes – A month-by-month account of a relationship breaking down and all the emotions and states of mind that go with this.

Little Deaths – The death of plans and dreams with a wish to be filled with inspiration, creativity and light.

Dancers is about living in London and feeling oppressed by city living. The Thames features heavily in this song serving to remind of the sea, open skies, clear horizons and space. I wrote most of the lyrics when walking over Waterloo bridge.

Pause – I wrote this song when back in Bridgetown (south-west of Western Australia) in my childhood home. I could hear my parents in the background pottering around the farm. It’s a song about exhaustion, a longing to slow down and the importance of taking time out to be with loved ones. It’s also about the depth of love you can feel for someone.

Openings is a song about politics on a personal level and also on a larger scale. It realises that every action we make has a consquence that resonates not only in our immediate vicinity but across seas to other parts of the world. For instance what we consume and how we consume it. It’s also about the importance of community and localisation as opposed to globalisation.

Light is about finding someone at a time least expected and falling head over heels for them. So light coming from darkness.

Calendar was inspired by Primo Levi’s poem ‘Almanac’ which is an apocalyptic glimpse into the future of the earth if we don’t care for it. It was written in the 70′s and I was struck by the profound relevance it has today (and held then). So I wrote ‘Calendar’ which is an update on this theme about respecting our home on earth and doing what we can to look after it instead of taking with no foresight.

Witch of Pittenweem is a true story about a woman called Janet Cornfoot who was accused of being a witch after a local fisherman had a dream that she killed him. For this she suffered a brutal jail sentence then stoning all because of one man’s dream and the mass hysteria at the time regarding witch-hunts. I was so shocked to discover this was quite commonplace at the times and felt the story must be told.

Bones – At Uni in Perth, Western Australia, I did an Indigenous Studies unit for a semester which was run and taught by indigenous Australians. I was completely shocked by what I learnt there. Much of the true history of how Australia was ‘settled’ has been entirely swept under the rug, buried beneath statues of revered pioneers. My song ‘Bones’ talks about the untold atrocities committed by settlers on indigenous Australians during colonisation. The idea that Australians are walking around on aboriginal bones that lie underneath our roads and farm land. There are no graves for them but instead these statues of men who massacred them.

Almanac is out now in all good record stores, and many of the less reputable ones, too. Go pop down your local independent store, buy Almanac and tell them Stephen sent you. They won’t have a clue who you mean, but I’m trying to get my name out there, you know?

Robert Francis is modest – almost to the point of frustration. Throughout our interview he downplays his achievements. His albums, his success despite being (rather frustratingly) a mere three months older than myself. It’d be tempting to snap and shout at him “Hey! Robert! Stop with the modesty! You release two acclaimed albums before your 23rd birthday and you’re allowed to be at least a little pleased with yourself!” But I don’t. Because he’s just too darn nice.

Perhaps this is down to his family, which the press has often made out to be the epitome of Californian life – not the high-rolling success that we Brits tend to associate with the state, the fast cars and extreme wealth. Rather the laid-back alternative America – green-thinking and more than a little tie-dyed. Musician sisters, a mother who held great Mexican singalongs with her own sisters, an eccentric father and a Hari Krishna brother. “It wasn’t a commune, though.” Francis says. “People get the idea it was, but we weren’t that. My father’s a recluse, so it wasn’t like that.” The music affected him though, Francis claiming that the soul in the songs his mother sang influenced his own work later.

Whether his home lifestyle was alternative or not, Francis struggled with the school system. “I hated it. I used to wake up crying. I was just bored. I was bored to tears. I thought ‘is this going to be my story?’ I wanted to create something for myself, so I followed my gut and dropped out.” For a while, Francis went about a little loose and fast – he describes the period himself as being “a bit lawless, doing really stupid things”. He speaks of crashing cars, or a night when he single-handedly polished off three bottles of whiskey. Eventually he had to pull himself together, and it was only at that point the music started to matter.

Francis’ second album, Before Nightfall, came out over here in late November last year. It’s a bold album – grandiose within the construct of only a few instruments, full of great big singalongs and familiar but refreshing alt-folk. At least, that’s how we have it down. Francis describes the album as very much ‘not a masterpiece’. Maybe it isn’t quite that, but Before Nightfall is impressive nonetheless – Francis tells of how the album was recorded over a period of only three weeks, a decision that came from not wanting to ‘over think things’. “It’s got a lot of anxiety, and angst” he tells WWL, “so it’s quite down-tempo.” He talks of recording in Hollywood, and of the vibes thrown about, and we’re drawn back to his Californian roots again.

For now, Robert Francis remains modest about his music, but he’s already finished his third record, and he seems a little more optimistic about it. “It’s very different. Hands down, it’s much better an album.” He promises a bigger sound, an orchestrated record. We’re excited. But then, we would be anyway, because whatever Francis thinks of Before Nightfall himself, we know it’s a great album, and that’s enough to excite us for the next.

With a little snow and more than a little chill, WWL finds itself falling into December. There are few things that make December so lovely – birthdays, mulled wine, wood fires and End Of Year Lists (more on that soon enough…), but one day stands out above the rest of the month. Probably because it dominates much of the month with decorations and present-buying and tree-finding and terrible, terrible Christmas music. We love ourselves some Christmas over here at WWL, but if any area of the season deserves to be approached with caution, it’s the music. Let’s celebrate the first day of advent with a quick-rundown of our favourite Christmas albums.

Bob Dylan – Christmas In The Heart When, in 2009, Bob Dylan announced his new album the news was about as left-field as anyone could imagine. Dylan was to release a Christmas album, of all things. In October, at that. We’ve still not quite shaken off our confusion about all that, but regardless of the circumstance, Christmas In The Heart is kind of everything you’d expect from a Dylan Christmas album if, you know, you ever expected one. The vocals are hoarse, croaky, broken, as if Bobby’s been smoking twice his normal amount just to accommodate the sound fan’s now expect from him. He can barely manage to break the notes free from his throat at times, and he sounds as though he may die at any second during ‘Hark! The Herald Angels’. But there’s a childish glee to the man, and it carries the album. Anyone who has ever been to a carol service with members of my family will know that it isn’t the vocals that count – it’s the spirit, and Christmas In The Heart is oozing it.

Various Artists – A Christmas Gift For You Phil Spector was always doomed to a life of crime. You can tell just looking at the picture that adorns CD releases of this classic album. There he stands, dressed in a Santa costume, wearing sunglasses that balance on the tip of his nose, revealing two mad, staring eyes. His hands grab his belt menacingly and, as you look at the picture, you can’t help but check behind you but you can’t quite work out why. Regardless of it all, Spector gathered the best of the acts he worked with to form a jingling, jangling Christmas masterpiece. The whole album is fantastic, but it peaks at the eleventh track with the euphoric ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’, arguably (no, categorically) the best Christmas song ever released.

Various Artists – A Christmas Gift For You What? Again? Not quite. This EP, our list’s most recent entry, is a new release from Moshi Moshi records. It’s notable for several things, not least a fantastic cover of the aforemention best Christmas song ever released, recorded by the charming Slow Club. Idiot Glee’s stuttering version of ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ might not be to everyone’s taste, but its unconventional beauty has already won over hearts in these parts. In fact, the whole six track EP is worth a mention. It might not become a classic Christmas album in the same vein as its namesake, but with four or five more tracks added, it could well manage it in the future.

Bright Eyes - A Christmas Album Most people would choose Low’s effort for their alternative Christmas record, but Bright Eyes’ is arguably the better. Taking oft-forgotten staples of the genre (if you can really call Christmas music a genre (which you can’t)), such as ‘Blue Christmas’, and turning them into moments for the broken-hearted. The best song on the record is the faltering version of ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’, which becomes just about the saddest thing you’ve ever heard when uttered carefully by Conor Oberst.

Sufjan Stevens – Songs For Christmas A modern staple in Christmas aural diets, I can tell you now for a fact that when I have kids this will be the album they open their presents to. As one might expect from a five-disc, forty-two track collection, there are a legion of brilliant tracks. ‘We’re Going To the Country’. ‘Sister Winter’. ‘Lo! How A Rose E’er Blooming’ (in either of the two versions present here). The inadmissable tracks though are Stevens’ own ‘Get Behind Me, Santa!’ and a hauntingly perfect version of ‘Amazing Grace’. Sometimes the very existence of this boxset upsets me, as I crawl through my CDs in mid-July and wish desperately that I could listen to it right at that moment.

Rosie Thomas - A Very Rosie Christmas And so we reach the pinnacle of Christmas music – Rosie Thomas’ barely-known 2008 album A Very Rosie Christmas. Hitting the perfect balance between well-known songs (‘Christmastime Is Here’, ‘River’, ‘Winter Wonderland’) and absolutely ruddy fantastic originals, the best of the album is to be found in the latter efforts. ‘Snow Day’ is the most wonderful winter instrumental since Vivaldi was knocking about, whilst ‘Why Can’t It Be Christmastime All Year’ is without a doubt the most gleeful Christmas song ever to have been written. Seriously. I sometimes find myself still humming it come April.

Go on though, you know I’ve missed your favourite out. So what should I have included?