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What it is: In an e-mail suggesting the Sleigher consider this song from the Brooklyn/D.C. band’s upcoming album Birdseed Shirt, Deleted Scenes’ Dan Scheuerman describes it as “sort of a quarter-life Christmas carol about being strung out and trying to get it together enough to spend some time with your family.” Sure, but even if the specifics ring a bit exotic (“Cheer up, take some medication” he advises), anyone who’s ever returned to their family’s warm house from a life where things aren’t exactly just so will find something plangent here.
The bike under the tree: Scheuerman’s wobbly voice, singing lyrics that remind the Sleigher of getting on the Peter Pan from New York back home to Alexandria all dogeared with a box of clementines and $12 in the bank: “Dust off a box of old forgotten clothes/If you clean up nice, no one will ever know/’Cause what’s the point of one more disguise /When you’re not even yourself in your daily life?”
The lump of coal: The vintage Noise New York production is an additional postcard to those of us approaching decrepitude, but like the Galaxie 500 records it references (complete with weird reverb screams that could be strings, someone singing, or phantom piano) things get so soupy it’s easy to miss the great, self-hating lyrics.
Cheer factor: -4 out of 10, though it’s a good kind of hurt. “Keep your shit together for a couple days,” Scheuerman sings, reminding himself and the listeners that the holidays aren’t the only thing that can’t last forever.
LISTEN: “Get Your Shit Together for the Holidays”
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