CFNN Reporter Haven Lucas

The holiday season is nearing, and with this comes the beloved playing of everyone’s favorite Christmas Songs. For many people the Holiday Season is the most joyous time of year, but sadly for some it is met with much grief and sadness. When there is heartbreak during the Holiday months it can leave a nasty mark on a persons’ morale. 

Christmas songs are always happy, so where can someone find a sad Christmas song to listen to when they are feeling melancholic? Well, I would suggest the wonderful Christmas song collection from Grammy Nominated artist Phoebe Bridgers. 

Phoebe Bridgers is a four-time Grammy nominated alternative, indie-rock artist who is most known for her gloomy, eerie sound. She is a visual songwriter whose music is perfectly engineered to have an intimate, emotional provoking sound. For years she has released Christmas covers during the Holiday Season, which has now compiled into a collection of six songs that have her signature, melancholic seal. 

Phoebe first released a cover of the classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Hugh Martin in 2017. With Phoebes’ weightless, soft, high voice and her tweaking with the melody, makes this cover very audibly beautiful, while still maintaining a sad taint to the song. 

Then in 2018, Phoebe released a cover of “Christmas Song” by the band Mccarthy Trenching. In this transformative cover Phoebe encapsulates how it feels to be depressed during such a happy season. With the lyrics from Mccarthy Trenching and Phoebes’ genius twist on the music, it is such a gut wrenching song. The song touches on unwanted sadness, loneliness, and depression episodes that sometimes creep up on us.

In 2019 Bridgers released “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night” with featured artists Fiona Apple and Matt Berninger. This song is very unique and definitely strays heavily from the status quo. It brings attention to the fact that even though the Holiday season is a holy, joyous time, terrible things still take place all over the world that negatively affect people. The negativity of the News can penetrate our lives and introduce pessimistic attitudes, however we have to accept that bad things are always happening.

 In 2020 Bridgers followed up by releasing a cover of “If We Make it Through December” by Merle Haggard. This song brings light to the various financial struggles that people may endure during Christmas time. It also touches on seasonal depression and how the cold, winter months can be tough on people. 

In 2021, Bridgers released a cover of “Day After Tomorrow” by Tom Waits. This song would resonate with military families, veterans, and soldiers who are off at war during the Holiday season. This song is very sad and touches on the emotional turmoil that comes with being in War. It is a beautiful song and really brings awareness to how important being around family is. 

Most recently, this past week, Bridgers covered and released a cover of “So Much Wine” by The Handsome Family. This song would resonate with people who deal with having family members or partners with issues like alcoholism. Christmas is about family but it can be a hard time of year when there are things like addiction that cause conflict. 

All of Phoebe Bridgers’ Christmas songs are beautifully engineered and produced to evoke emotion. If you enjoy sad, soft music and would like something to listen to, particularly during Christmas time I would definitely recommend her Christmas selection. Christmas can be a difficult time of year for a lot of people, and Bridgers makes it her mission to offer music for those people. If you regularly don’t experience sadness during the Holidays I would still suggest that you check out Bridgers’ Christmas Selection because she is such a talented musician and you may gain something from listening!