After the Bible-bashing of Good News – my favourite album of the year and no mistake – there’s no chance that Withered Hand’s Christmas song will make the sleigh bells go ring-ting-ting-a-ling. It's A Wonderful Lie – “this phony bonhomie makes me feel uneasy” – will warm the cold heart of every cynic sick of the authorised seasonal farrago of It’s A Wonderful Life: “Of all of the days I think this could be the worst day/It’s not even the real thing, it’s not Jesus birthday”.
Typically with Dan Willson, religion and sex are uncomfortable if inseparable bedfellows, and the bitter lyrical bent is leavened by whip-smart lines and an unholy marriage of Christianity and the horizontal hokey cokey.
It's A Wonderful Lie, Withered Hand’s Christmas gift to sceptics, misanthropes and pessimists everywhere, can be downloaded here.
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