It’s that time of year again, when it’s hard to miss the ubiquitous airings of familiar refrains either celebrating the holiday season or bemoaning it for one reason or another. For my money, the best Christmas pop has always been of the melancholy variety. From even before The King sang “Blue Christmas,” artists have tapped into the loneliness that is just as present as joy in December, and the results have usually proven to be more powerful.

In that vein, Sheffield quartet The Crookes has digitally released “It’s Just Not Christmas Without You.” With the band’s strikingly Smithian Brit-pop accented by bells of both the jingle and church variety, the song pulls on one’s heartstrings in all the right ways.  Like on so many classics, singer George White is missing his baby as he sings, “Darling, my heart still longs to be with you. Come home.” Why he and his girl didn’t make better plans, we’ll never know, but the song is a potent reminder that Christmas can be just as much a sad time of the year as the most wonderful. The proof is below.