Les Issambres
Merry Christmas
Fifth Week Records
This CD's got the feel of a batch of still-warm cookies a friend just baked and brought over. You can easily imagine the siblings who lead this band and their friends sitting round at home dreaming up silly and sad Christmas songs (one which spent way too many days stuck in my head is titled "It's a sad sad Christmas Day, Sadaam Hussein") and recording them right then and there. The hand-wrapped-in-Christmas-wrapping-paper packaging only adds to the informal feel of a friendly gift. But spontaneous and lightweight as the record may be, there's some real talent in this band, and like their more serious (and better) 2007 release, "Late fairytales", it's got some really nice lo-fi indie songs that combine strong pop sense with some late 1970s New York art rock influence.
- Nancy Baym
