DID YOU KNOW THEY PULLED THE TOWN HALL DOWN?

A totally gorgeous concession to the festive period. Others might choose Fairytale of New York, but I've never heard anything as hopeful, as giddy, as weak-at-the-knees as this.

The specialness of St Etienne has been articulated a thousand times over, and I've never felt quite comfortable grappling with the grammars that rightfully belong to a certain kind of student from the early 1990s. Listening to St Etienne provokes a sense of second hand nostalgia usually only available from childhood memories experienced via an overweening older sibling. Even more disorientatingly, they seem to hit the sweet spot of a whole plethora of historical moments simultaneously. There's some great bits in here: Tim Burgess employing the indie-bloke monkey-walk on the race to the church, planting a kiss on the everso mature and sophisticated Sarah which misses the mark by miles.

Of course, this kind of utterly key sentimentalism about pop music is a site like Freakytrigger's stock-in-trade; read what they say about I Was Born on Christmas Day here.

And, of course, Merry Christmas!