Photo Credit : Zachary Vague
Dan Mangan is sharing “A Christmas Song”. Bittersweet, nostalgic, and more honest than the genre typically allows, it’s safe to say we might have a modern Christmas classic on our hands. It “actually feels like how Christmas feels,” says Mangan. The track beautifully articulates the tension between the mythological glow of the holiday season and our imperfect contemporary reality, fitting naturally within the sonic world most recently established in Natural Light, Mangan’s seventh studio album, released earlier this year.
“Christmas music thrives on nostalgia,” explains Mangan. “As much as I do love a lot of Christmas music, I’ve always felt a bit disconnected from it – like there’s this overzealous desire to telegraph a seasonal elation that isn’t quite realistic. It can feel disingenuous or superficial. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we get caught between our desire to feel that mythological glow and the imperfect nature of real life in the present. Sometimes Christmas feels bittersweet, and that’s just part of it. I’ve often been asked if I’d consider writing ‘a Christmas song’, so I decided to write an honest one.”
