Swansea Sound - Santa Bail Me Out

  by John Clarkson

published: 5 / 12 / 2023

Label: Skep Wax
Format: Download

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Typically thoughtful and refreshingly caustic Christmas EP from indie pop supergroup Swansea Sound which reflects on both sides of the festive season

Swansea Sound released one of the indie pop albums of the year with their second album ‘Twentieth Century’ and are concluding the year with a three-track Christmas EP, ‘Santa Bail me Out’. The title track has all the trademarks of their music that have made this indie pop supergroup over the last couple of years such a force live – Bob Collins and bassist and songwriter Rob Pursey’s discordant, barnstorming guitars and seemingly throwaway, funny lyrics that belie something much spikier and angrier, this time that Christmas is for many people unaffordable. “Sign your name right/Lots of festive cheer/Santa bail me out,” deadpans Hue Williams, while keyboardist Amelia Fletcher blows bubbles of harmonies around them. The ‘B sides’ are two versions of the same song. ‘The Life We Led’, which is cleaner, gentler, and, featuring further strong harmonies from Fletcher, finds Williams reflecting on happier and kinder Christmases of the past. ‘Nadolilg. Pwy A Wyre? is a Welsh language version, sung by Catrin Saran James, who also designed the Christmas card sleeve. The ‘Santa Bail Me Out’ EP is a typically thoughtful and refreshingly caustic offering from Swansea Sound and the pen of Pursey, which reflects on both sides of Christmas – the way it is, with many people mounting massive debts, and the way it should be.

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