While it’s not the Pogues’ “Fairy Tale of New York,” the brash and boozy “A Christmas Duel” can rightly take its place alongside Shane McGowan’s story of doomed gutter romance on hip Christmas playlists. Cyndi Lauper and Hives singer Pelle Almqvist are a surprisingly good fit, but if the two make something like beautiful music together, the characters they inhabit definitely do not: All manner of atrocious indiscretions are confessed (we won’t spoil who delivers the line “I wrecked your daddy’s car and went down on your mother”). Leave it to garage-rock revivalists and an eighties icon to bring a bittersweet dose of holiday nostalgia.
Download “A Christmas Duel”: Letters Have No Arms!
