"Alternative" (in the loosest sense of the word) Christmas covers are usually brimming with positive holiday cheer, even if they have a slight humorous bent à la Yo La Tengo's "Toymageddon" or Ben Folds' "Bizarre Christmas Incident". Cassie Ramone's collection of covers, however, forgoes the usual Christmassy spectacle; the songs on here are dark and harrowing in their interpretation. As gusts of wind introduce both the record and Ramone's drawling take on "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", she immediately projects loneliness and isolation. As she sings "The snow's comin' down/ I'm watchin' it fall," Ramone counteracts Darlene Love's powerful hopefulness in the original song with sheer hopelessness.
While she had some assistance from Ariel Pink on bass and Jay Heiselmann in mastering on her first solo effort, The Time Has Come, this time Ramone, formerly of Vivian Girls and the Babies, is truly on her own*. Christmas in Reno* was recorded and mixed mostly by Ramone herself, rendering these covers with a vulnerable and intimate touch. Nothing is tight and structured per se, but everything is meticulously executed in order to reach its intended effect: portraying a despondence and loss of interest in life. Reverb guides Ramone's disturbed voice on her version of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime", letting her pain linger. The track fades out with a wobbly wah-wah, leading into a haunting and fuzzy rendition of "Blue Christmas". "I'll Be Home for Christmas" is tragically slurred and toward the end Ramone's recital of Bing Crosby's popular lyrics becomes indecipherable.
"Run Run Rudolph" is probably the most upbeat thing here—it sounds like a rough DIY track, which Ramone accentuates with guileless yelping. But even "Sleigh Ride", possibly the chirpiest and most festive Christmas ditty of all time, feels haunted. Ramone zooms in on the "you" in the line "It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you," letting it linger with ache; she wants whoever "you" is to know how much they hurt her. Her memories of Christmases together with a former lover are too painful, but she tortures herself over and over, ending the song with a repeating "you."
Christmas in Reno is uncomfortable to listen to—the tracks that you so often associate with being jolly are torn up into pieces and burned at the core. However, that's exactly Ramone's intention—to find the melancholy in a "joyful time of year." Bad things can happen to you no matter the time of year. She affirms this using Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song", halfheartedly ending the record with a bleak "Merry Christmas to you."
