Just to get it out of the way, this isn’t a Christmas album. It’s the debut EP from The Zest of Yore and it is titled for the one Christmas song that’s on the album. I guess if you’re doing an EP and, of course, that might be the only thing you ever get to do, you would put your Christmas song on the EP, but I’m not sure why you’d name the EP after it. I don’t know; maybe it means your EP gets put out for sale every year instead of just once, but what about when people buy it expecting a Christmas album and then get pissed that it isn’t? Well, I’ll assume the calculus on all that has been done by people connected with the band. Anyway, this is a solid, really fun EP. It’s got eight songs and clocks in at right about twenty-two minutes, so that should give you an indication of the song length. They’re short, poppy and energetic. Nothing here is going to set the world on fire, but some of the lyrics are sharp and witty. I particularly liked Kid Gloves Come Off, where the singer finally unleashes his true opinions on a friend, and I’ll Do the Thinking, which has a great pop melody. And, well, hey, that Christmas song is actually pretty good. 3 stars.
tl;dr – band’s debut EP isn’t a Christmas album, but it is a fun, energetic collection of likable songs. 3 stars.