While not a Christmas album, this CD contains, in my opinion, one of the greatest carols ever written. Far from traditional, "Fairytale of New York" is the drunken reverie of a soused up man and his soused up gal in the lock-up reflecting on their love on Christmas Eve. The female singer, Kristy McColl, had several hits of her own before her tragic death. Shane McGowan, the lead singer of the Pogues, is one of the most talented and troubled artists in the history of Irish music. A real genius and his own worst enemy.

Dark, haunting, beautiful and real.

If you want to hear the song, check it out on youtube. It doesn't do it justice, but you'll get the idea....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff3aoSyYOVs

Here's the Wikipedia history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairytale_of_New_York

For me, the season doesn't start until I begin blasting this around the house. Love it. Absolutely love it. It perfectly captures the dysfunction and beauty of the season.

Fairytale of New York:

It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you (via Fairytale of New York on YouTube)