Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler: Present … This Is Christmas – review

Given the histories of its makers, there's no surprise that This Is Christmas features both spunky, Ramonic guitar pop and wistful acoustic balladry. The bigger shock is the third element in Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler 's seasonal collaboration: the sound of throwaway 80s chart pop. Snowflakes is all tinny drum machines, cheap keyboard washes and the kind of synthesised basslines that, to listeners of a certain age, will summon images of Radio 1 DJs in tinsel crowns with their jacket sleeves pushed up introducing Top of the Pops. They're better when they stick to familiar ground: Zombie Christmas is perky new wave; Christmas Day (I Wish I Was Surfing) barrels along like something Wheeler might have recorded with Ash, with added sleigh bells. The sleigh bells, though inevitable, highlight the problem: too much of the album, right down to the chord progressions (Mrs Christmas steals one of its hooks straight from Here Comes Santa Claus), is pastiche, without any hint of a twist. The contents of this cracker are as tired as ever.