Merry Christmas to all our readers from the AUK team

Well that’s it from us for this year. A huge thank you to you our readers for your ongoing support and sticking with us through the thick and sometimes thin. We are taking a much-needed break until Monday January 6th which is literally the only downtime we get the whole year – at some point people might run out of every known combination of notes there is in the universe but from the amount we’ve covered this year – including reviewing over 500 albums! – that is probably some way off. If you are a regular reader and enjoy reading our content, please consider supporting us – you can find out how here. We all do this in our spare time so every little helps to nick a slogan. Of course more important are the many people who have experienced unimaginable trauma over the last year – if you can, please support The Guardian’s Christmas appeal for 2024 here. The donations will go to War Child and MSF to help support individuals impacted by the horrific effects of war in Gaza and Sudan among other places, providing everything from emergency aid to psychological support.

In the meantime we are signing off with not one but two festive tracks – one from Toad the Wet Sprocket who have covered Sam Phillips “Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas” (seemingly some time ago but it’s just popped up on YouTube and it’s too good to miss) but before that one from Drew Danburry which is taken from his 2023 album “Lynette” – ‘Christmas at Danburry Pond’ is just classic Danburry and arrived too late last year to feature so we’ve kind of being saving it up all year. From all of the AUK Team, wishing you all a peaceful holiday season and all the best for 2025. See you on the other side.