4 out of 5

Label: supermegacorporation

Produced by: (?)

Surely one of the few ways in which Christmas music would be tolerable to me.

That said, of course this won’t be for everyone, and will surely actively annoy many. But I think taken on its own terms – possibly drunken / high, sloppy, off-key xmas tune covers (are you not intrigued?) – this is actually quite a bit of fun. And don’t let the inebriated / altered tag put you off: while there’s a lot of giggling and mumbling happening here, I don’t hear that as part of an in-joke, like “you’ll only get this if you’re baked”; rather, this just comes across as the Tot Anon group doing outre versions of standards, as loosely as possible. Yet, with that approach, there’s still a lot of inventiveness and choice applied: which tracks have effects layered into the background; which songs they actually decide to sing on; some are a capella. What I liked is that this wander far off the beaten path, but not so far as to not be songs. That, and the laughing and half-forgotten lyrics are encouraging more than obnoxious; you kinda want to be in on this silly sing-along.

But this is the max extent to which this could work – 8 short tracks. Any more than that would be too many, and even with this, yeah, you could probably shave off one or two, since the general gist is repeated throughout.

Not changing lives, but Tot Anon are having fun, and if you’re game, you will too.