ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT XMAS MUSIC, no. 1. Geraint Watkins plays keyboards and, for me, is the secret weapon to pre-Los Straitjackets/post-Party of One Nick Lowe music, which I know partly because we saw Geraint play with and open for Nick in Ann Arbor (saw that show with @kurtameyer and @mikesavitski and @asavitski) and WOW what a character. What, a, character. And partly I know because Geraint’s keyboards are a delight to listen for, confidently burbling up somewhat randomly with perfect fills and countermelodies. Asymmetrically: just because he does it once and it sounds like a repeating “part,” doesn’t mean he’ll do it twice. “Christmas At the Airport” is the most well-known song here, but all the tracks where Geraint gets prominently featured are delightful, which is most of them. Nick isn’t afraid to write a variation on the usual Xmas-song tropes—the tropes exist in his lyrics unchallenged (so sometimes I’m like, “well, that’s been said a lot of times before, hm”) but he finds unexpected angles on them. And the “covers” of traditional stuff are all tasty Nick Lowe-like arrangements. Ho. Ho ho. #hohoho #Itookasetofxrays #nicklowe #geraintwatkins #christmasattheairport #qualitystreet #christmasmusic #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylcommunity #vinylfreak #33andathird #33rpm #onmyturntable #ellipticalsoundtrack #treadmillsoundtrack #hoppervinyl #cvhoppervinyl #nowspinning #nowplaying #nowplayingonvinyl cc: @yeproc (at Noblesville, Indiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6OtCDFAY9Z/?igshid=1q9mihtyi61r3