Classic Christmas tracks grating on you? Here’s an alternative top 10-Sharon O’Connell-Entertainment – Metro

Have yourself… a Christmas playlist that’s a bit different (Picture: WireImage/Shutterstock)

Does Jingle Bells jangle your every nerve? Mariah’s All I Want For Christmas Is You turn your mood murderous? Fear not, here’s our Yuletide playlist to shake things up…

1. Billy Gibbons, Dave Grohl & Lemmy – Run Rudolph Run

This Texan boogie/rock take on Chuck Berry’s original sees Lemmy on fine, glass-gargling form, the ZZ Top man on guitar and the Foo Fighters chief on drums.

Dave Grohl and Lemmy (Picture: Annamaria DiSanto/WireImage)

2. TLC – Sleigh Ride

Roll back the rug and bust a few moves to this underrated Christmas classic. It’s an effortless joy, stuffed with their creamy harmonies and easy-rolling, old school rhymes.

Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, and Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas in 1999 (Picture: Sipa/Rex)

3. The Fall – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Mark E Smith gives it his sing-speak treatment against a wiry pop backdrop, in a 1994 Peel Session. Rather different from the carol’s first airing by Waltham Abbey Choir, it’s fair to say.

Manchester musician Mark E Smith with other The Fall members (Picture: Kevin Cummins/Getty Images)

4. Low – Just Like Christmas

Last month we lost Mimi Parker, the drummer with a voice like a forlorn angel; play it in her memory.

Mimi Parker, Alan Sparhawk, and Steve Garrington of the band Low (Picture: Supplied)

5. Patti Smith – We Three Kings

A solemn but sublimely poetic, art-rock take from the punk iconoclast, drawing on the cosmic wonder of the original story. Well, a novelty version wasn’t on the cards…

Patti Smith (Picture: Elena Di Vincenzo/Mondadori Portfolio via ZUMA/REX/Shutterstock)

6. Tyler, The Creator – You’re A Mean One, Mr Grinch

A risky artist choice for a family-friendly Christmas song, maybe, but this hip-hop take on the 1966 original, from the movie based on the Dr Seuss story, is a total (clean) charmer.

Tyler, The Creator (Picture: Rick Kauffman/London Entertainment/Shutterstock)

7. LCD Soundsystem – Christmas Will Break Your Heart

‘Christmas will crush your soul, like that laid-back rock’n’roll,’ croons James Murphy, with his tongue in his cheek, while an orchestral-pop swell builds around him.

Nancy Whang and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem (Picture: Jim Dyson/Getty Images)

8. Tom Waits – Christmas Card From A Hooker in Minneapolis

‘Hey Charlie, I’m pregnant’ isn’t your standard Xmas song opening line, but Tom is a chronicler of the down-and-out, as in this piano ballad with a faint seasonal twinkle.

Tom Waits (Picture: Richard Creamer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

9. Rachel Unthank & The Winterset – Tar Barrel In Dale

Cue this beauty up for New Year’s Eve: heavenly harmonies with no accompaniment and a light coating of hoar frost from the Northumberland folk group, celebrating ‘the rites of Old Father Time’.

English folk band The Unthanks led by sisters Rachel (right) and Becky Unthank (centre) (Picture: Judith Burrows/Getty Images)

10. Calexico – Gift X-Change

This isn’t about keeping your receipts (duh), but rather the hope of finding ‘gifts’ like inner peace and love when you make it home for Christmas, set to a bittersweet Americana tune.

Calexico performing in Milan earlier this year (Picture: Sergione Infuso/Corbis via Getty Images)

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