Glasvegas - A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss)

Scottish indie rockers Glasvegas round off a successful year with their own bleak and distinctive take on that most pointless of concepts, the Christmas mini-album. Instead of taking an opportunity to cash in and desecrate well-loved carols (although they do offer up a plaintive rendition of Silent Night), Glasvegas have come up with an album which reflects the beauty and grimness of Glasgow in winter. Instead of feeding us with inanities like Christmas bonbons, the band hit us between the eyes with lyrical snowballs on compositions with such festive titles as Fuck You, It's Over. Meanwhile their Mary Chain-esque guitar storm sounds more glacial than ever; you can hear the ice in singer James Allan's breath. Allan's plaintive flat vowels are a linguistic idiosyncrasy which never fail to make Scottish misery-guts music sound rawer than foreign counterparts. All in all, a strong effort, but one which, shackled to a particular season, will ultimately remain a footnote in the band's career. [Gillian Watson]