Breeds of Misery: A year's worth of seething heartbreak, repressed same-sex urges
Best/Worst Verse: "A crowded room, friends with tired eyes. I'm hiding from you and your soul of ice. My god I thought you were someone to rely on. Me? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on."
I don’t know if this counts as a confession, but I’ve always had a deep, abiding love for the music of George Michael. Though many probably think of him (and particularly Wham!) as happy and fun, I think he does morose particularly well (Listen Without Prejudice, Vol.1 was the first CD I ever bought, and his version of Stevie Wonder’s “They Won’t Go When I Go” is possibly my favorite of his songs). “Last Christmas” isn’t necessarily morose, or even serious—in fact it’s probably one of Wham!’s fluffier songs—but it succeeds where Tommy Page failed, assuming its place at the top of a longer-by-the-year list of the most prominent subgenre of miserable Christmas music: the Christmas Breakup Song.
(If this isn't enough yuletide misery for you, check out last year in my Annotated Playlists!)