Reindeer Tribe, on full blast

California collective Reindeer Tribe released their 14th Christmas release. Every year the group of friends (actors, singers, musicians) make an EP or full album with classic covers and self-penned originals. We've been following them on this blog for quite some time, with pleasure.
At the start, the songs had an Americana/indie folk coat on, later they added more styles. Country, northern soul and last year the sound of Joy Division and New Order were influences.

This year, they rolled out the fx and the pedals for a dreampop Christmas album. Again, they reworked xmas classic like Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Angels We Have Heard On High, but added some reverb and (in some cases) fuzz and distortion. The original tracks, are rock solid, I love Christmas Is Coming Early.
To be honest, not every remodeling turns out well. Feliz Navidad staring at its own pointy shoes, idk. The Most Wonderful Time, same. It feels forced, if this was a coat, it would itch and pull at the seams. For me, the overhauled carols work better. Probably because the ethereal atmosphere is closer to the shoegaze spirit. Like this one:
If you like the guitars more full on blasting, try the Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas version (HERE).
To give you an idea of the musical range of Reindeer Tribe, here are othe versions of 'Emmanuel' or earlier releases (they tend to revisit the same tracks ever so often, not all the time):
From the debut, a tender, sparse and, shall we say, Sparklehorsian version
From 2011, and preluding the shoegaze-rework with this spooky, lo-fi version
From 2013, more country, Loretta Lynn if that's a vibe