Gwen Stefani feat. Blake Shelton – You Make It Feel Like Christmas

“When my foot starts automatically tapping along to a song, I figure that’s a good sign.”

Tim: Gwen, who we all know (and who I was astounded to learn the other day is nearly 50), and Blake, her boyfriend who was apparently recently named the sexiest man alive – who knew? This here, the title track from her new Christmas album, and damn is it a good one.

Tom: So I’ve gained an appreciation of country-pop lately, and bloody hell, does Blake Shelton have a perfect voice for it. And you can feel its influence here: that introduction is very much half Shelton’s country, half Stefani’s pop. Plus, there are actual religious references in the chorus — that’s all country.

Tim: This, unlike yesterday, does have something. Well, not one thing in particular, but a collection: it’s fast, it’s bouncy, it’s a nice back and forth duet, and all in all it’s just…good.

Tom: When my foot starts automatically tapping along to a song, I figure that’s a good sign. All the elements here are really basic — that bassline is decades old, for starters — but they’re used perfectly. And it’s only two and a half minutes, which is exactly as long as it needs to be.

Tim: It’s got a great vibe to it, and while the sense and feelings are there very much as they were yesterday, this does so much more with them, and gives us a song that I actually really do want to hear again, and again, and again.

Tom: I don’t think it’s going to enter the Canon of Christmas Songs, but it’ll do nicely for this year.