Ages and Ages are spreading that holiday cheer and not leaving out the sorrow, with their new recording of “Christmas Time Is Here,” from 1965’s beloved A Charlie Brown Christmas TV special. Their take on the jazzily melancholic tune from Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson was premiered over on Paste today, with some commentary from the band:
“It is one of those rare holiday songs that doesn’t ignore the sadness of the season,” said band member Rob Oberdorfer. “It doesn’t feel like a cheap celebration of the consumerist rush, and there’s no overt religious references to alienate anyone. It’s just about the human experience of living through this time of year drawing close to family and loved ones, and the bittersweet nature of all that fleeting good will… With the Peanuts thing, it also brings back these memories of watching this kid’s program which didn’t feel like it was trying to sell us something. The whole thing has this clever rub of celebration and melancholy. The original has so much heart we didn’t want to take it too far musically, though we did de-jazzify it a little and add some pepper here and there.”
Take a listen below. Ages and Ages’ new album, Divisionary, comes out March 24, 2014; listen to the first preview track from that at this earlier End Hits post.