Listen to Shame’s unconventional new Christmas single ‘Baldur’s Gate’
"If I could rip off all my skin/ And parcel it inside a tin..." sings frontman Charlie Steen
By Tom Skinner
Shame have shared a new Christmas song called ‘Baldur’s Gate’ – you can listen to it below.
The band, whose second album ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ arrived in January, announced the festive single today (December 9) on social media.
“This is it, the greatest Christmas song to come into the world since Dean Martin opened his mouth,” they wrote. “Take a dive into our new release, Baldur’s Gate, and find yourself warmed on these cold winter nights.”
In a statement, Shame frontman Charlie Steen described ‘Baldur’s Gate’ as a “Christmas classic”.
“It’s about a period of time in which I’d regularly be trekking up to the streets of Edinburgh to see an ex-partner,” he continued. “These are some of the thoughts I’d have when I’d be leaving Waverley station, en route back to London in the winter nights.”
Opening with the sounds of laughter and sleigh bells, the track includes the not-so-festive lyrics: “If I could rip off all my skin/ And parcel it inside a tin/ I’d write your name in biro/ On the ribbons/ Like decorations.”
Later, Steen sings of being “dramatic, a conventional, cliched fanatic“, adding: “But fuck it/ A Christmas story/ Take me gently.”
The frontman created the black-white-and-red ‘Baldur’s Gate’ cover artwork, which depicts a snowy nighttime street.
It comes after Shame covered Christmas classic ‘Feliz Navidad’ back in 2018, the year they also released their debut album ‘Songs Of Praise’.
The group recently released a new track titled ‘This Side Of The Sun’, the first material to emerge from the band since this year’s ‘Drunk Tank Pink’.
Shame are scheduled to embark on a US headline tour in early 2022. Kicking off in Vancouver on February 7, the run of shows will also include stop-offs in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and other cities throughout that month and into March. See the full schedule here.
The band performed a string of UK dates last month including a two-night billing at Electric Brixton in London (November 12, 13). Shame wrapped up the jaunt in Bristol on November 27.