Vince Guaraldi Trio
A Charlie Brown Christmas
(Craft Recording)
★★★★

THE soundtrack to the December 1965 Peanuts TV special in the US, A Charlie Brown Christmas, has become one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, as well as the best known work of the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

In 2012 it was added to the US Library of Congress National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

This reissue contains the original 11-track set, along with 13 studio outtakes. Yes, it’s a Christmas album — the choir-assisted My Little Drum and Hark, The Herald Angels Sing will get you in the festive mood — but much of it suits year-round listening. 

Understated, classy and swinging in places — check out the Guaraldi-penned Skating and the Dave Brubeck-sounding Linus and Lucy — A Charlie Brown Christmas is simply one of the great cool West Coast jazz records of all time. 

Various Artists
Women In Revolt! Underground Rebellion In British Music 1977-1985
(Music For Nations)
★★★★

THE soundtrack to the Women In Revolt! art exhibition at Tate Britain (running until April 2024), this collection covers a hugely energetic and promising period for women in British indie music, from punk’s beginnings to the post-punk and pop era of the ’80s.

While Typical Girls by The Slits stands out as the best known track there is a wealth of other riches to be found here.

1983’s Trees and Flowers by Glasgow duo Strawberry Switchblade is a revelation, the melancholic song apparently a document of the anxiety and agoraphobia of lead guitarist Jill Bryson.

Another standout is October (Love Song) by Chris & Cosey, a near-perfect combination of synth pop, romance and talk-singing.

Throw in fantastic tunes from The Raincoats, X-Ray Spex and Poison Girls, and you have one of the best compilation albums of the year.

Angie McMahon
Light Dark, Light Again
(AWAL)
★★★★

FOLLOWING her impressive 2019 debut, Angie McMahon returns with another set of cathartic guitar rock.

In a recent interview the young Australian singer-songwriter said she “had a bit of a life crisis” between the two records, including a break-up: “I experienced the lowest low that I’ve ever hit.”

Brilliant single Letting Go echoes the hiding-out-at-home vibes of Pasta from her previous album. “I might’ve spent six months lying on my living room floor,” she sings, before ending up howling “It’s OK, it’s OK, make mistakes, make mistakes!” as the song fades out.

Amusingly, on Staying Down Low she laments watching too many episodes of zombie apocalypse TV show The Walking Dead.

Voice Of Her Generation would be overegging the pudding, but there’s no doubt McMahon’s music does a good job of capturing the turbulent emotional lives of many millennials.