Get in the Christmas Spirit, Velvet Blue Music Style

Now that Thanksgiving’s come and gone, it’s time to start prepping for the Christmas season: putting up the tree, filling your rooms with Christmas décor, hanging lights on your house, and of course, finding the perfect holiday soundtrack. I can’t really help you with the first three, but for that last one, look no further than a pair of recent offerings from Velvet Blue Music.

After a long hiatus, Ronnie Martin returned with 2022’s excellent From the Womb of the Morning, the Dew of Your Youth Will Be Yours. Since then, he’s released a trio of Christmas-themed titles: Bells Merrily, Holiday Fable, and most recently, On Christmas Morning. Featuring Martin’s trademark analog melodies and fantastical imagery (e.g., “Time slows down/Raindrops freeze/Church bells ring in jubilee/Presents under tinsel trees”), On Christmas Morning is a pair of holiday-inspired synth-pop tunes par excellence.

With their languid guitar melodies and beguiling vocals, New Jersey’s Slow Salvation took the dreampop scene by storm with 2023’s Here We Lie. “The Ghost of Last Christmas” finds Christina Hernandez and Travis Trevisan employing their atmoshperica to summon the spectre of Christmas nostalgia. (Fellow Chrindie fans will also get a kick out of Driver Eight’s Matt McCartie filling in on drums.)

Between these two singles as well as new albums from The Rocky Valentines, Gileah Taylor, Starflyer 59, and Neon Horse, Velvet Blue Music has had a banner 2024 — and their 2025 looks pretty solid, too, with planned albums from Starflyer 59 and Fine China (and surely more to come).