Christmas Albums Suck, But We Like Choklate, So If You Have To Listen To One Holiday EP This Year, It Might As Well Be Hers

So, Christmas albums as a whole are a pretty painful, right? With sickening levels of courtesy cheer and unironic well wishing. With it's six or seven recycled standards, Christmas music isn't really fertile ground for creative exploration. Really, unless you're drunk, or happen to be the Vince Guaraldi Trio (full disclosure: I fucking love Charlie Brown), it's hard to imagine that anyone really has a good time listening to, or making this stuff.

Enter Choklate, the local angel-voiced swooner that sounds classically soulful, yet contemporary to the point that she could cover for any of the three Destiny's Child divas if two of the founders needed a third to fill a spot on a reunion tour. So Chok's recently released Fah La La La La The Christmas EP, effectively enrolling her in the Christmas artist pantheon, and I must say, it's not half bad. She does the obligatory "Tis The Season" thing, and does her share of "Fah La La La"-ing, but then she pokes fun at the big guy with "Santa Sucks", and it's all good. Her voice, as always, rings cleanly, and almost makes you forget that you're not supposed to take pleasure in such cheerful tunes, lest you be painted painfully uncool. We'll give you a pass this time, because hey, we like Choklate.

On iTunes here.