2. Slashed Wrists This Christmas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjQgwRr7z6M
Sample lyric: "It was 1987, you had just been diagnosed with manic depression. You said 'Next time I do it, I'm gonna do it well'. I just told you to go to hell." 2011 saw former Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys follow up his acclaimed Hotel Shampoo album with a very deliberate antidote to traditional festive fare: The Atheist Xmas EP. Among its tracks that include the surprisingly jaunty Post Apocalypse Christmas, the standout is this mournful tale of holiday self harm. "Slashed wrists this Christmas, lifeless and listless," the Welsh star sings, invoking the popular concept of Christmas as the leading time for suicide. (It's not, suicide rates in mid-winter are actually noticeably lower than early summer). Despite having been released three years ago, Slashed Wrists This Christmas enjoyed some controversy this month when it appeared on an alternative Christmas compilation released by the BBC.
Sections of the conservative press objected to the song's non-traditional take on the season. While The Daily Mail may view it as a "shocking" song about committing suicide, Slashed Wrists.. is actually a poignant take on manic depression and a failed attempt at suicide with more genuine emotion than most Yuletide singles.