Blur – The Wassailing Song Review

Christmas classics have been a staple of British artists for decades and there is no sign of stopping. The Wassailing Song may come across as a flaky release from Blur, but it is an inevitability of where they were in their musical growth. Shedding the baggy and Madchester influences, digging deep into the post-Second World War caricatures to come, The Wassailing Song provides a sea shanty-like stop-off. Is it a Christmas song? It seems to have been tagged as such and it marks one of the few songs in the Blur catalogue where all four members provide vocal performances. Heavy accordion work gives it the feel of a swashbuckling sound which, once cut through by the collective vocal performances, offers some New Year wishes. A hearty and honest piece of work from the Blur outfit, but a strange creation.  

This is the sort of borderline novelty song that sinks an artist. The kind of tune held by those lacking confidence in their material proper. Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree then Alex James all give the vocal duties a go and it makes for a whiplash-inducing, if fun, piece of work. Their cover of the traditional Christmas tune is such a left-field offering from Blur that it may as well be by a different artist entirely. But therein lies the joy of this track, the fundamental urge to break from a genre beginning to define a band with a hokey Christmas carol. There is much to enjoy about their cover, though, from the shanty consistencies to the callback to early days for Coxon and Albarn performing this at their comprehensive. The Wassailing Song serves as a rare gem for the dedicated Blur fan, a chance to hear their history in a traditional song.   

But it also provides an insight into the band at the time. Giving out Christmas singles at a half-empty club in Fulham, if first-hand accounts are to be believed, is not the sign of a band on the up and up. Carry on through the night with gold, frankincense and Blur. A bit of a weedy song, especially when Coxon appears with this callback to the school days, but The Wassailing Song is nothing but a bit of fun and goodwill spreads across it. Blur may have had no direction in this post Leisure period but The Wassailing Song, for how little coverage it received at the time and since then, is a neat and light piece of work with a positive message at its core. There is no way of getting around the lightness of it, the well-wishing covered by the four.  

What should be a special item for long-term fans of Blur, one of the only songs where all four members are involved in the vocal work, is instead a bit of a misfire. A nice enough piece, but not the immediate classic most Christmas songs must be to stick around in the cultural footprint. Perhaps it was just released at the wrong time, with no chance to cement itself in the public sphere because of how limited the run was. It could have come close to lost media given the lack of prints and how many were allegedly destroyed in the barrier rush to get hold of one. And yet it prevails, still kicking around on YouTube for those with three and a half minutes to kill, nothing better to do than hear what Alex James sounds like on vocal duties.