Are any two forms of artistic expression more widely maligned than musical comedy and the Christmas album? It would take a talent of Santa’s-sack proportions, surely, to redeem both at once. Step forward the gadfly sketch trio Sheeps, who have released their maiden (and I think we can assume, only) festive album, A Very Sheeps Christmas. The “musical passion project” of Sheeps’ Daran Johnson and Al Roberts, and supposedly 10 years in the making, it features 20 original tracks and guest vocal appearances by fellow Sheep Liam Williams alongside comedy megastars Rose (Starstruck) Matafeo, Lolly (Ghosts) Adefope, Jamie (Stath Lets Flats) Demetriou and more. Oh, and it’s very funny indeed.
A good way to experience it would be at one of the trio’s three live gigs this month that launch the album: my enjoyment of it was greatly intensified by familiarity with Sheeps as live performers. On record as on stage, the joke when Liam Williams opens his lungs to sing is that such a gruff and deadpan man should be going all light entertainment in the first place. But Johnson and Roberts take more of the strain here, with a suite of songs of sometimes sublime silliness – lyrically, conceptually and vocally too, whether that’s Johnson’s high-pitched Prince stylings in the sexy-Santa number Hoo Hoo Daddy X or the sinister little yelps in the death-worshipping country-and-western carol (“that baby’s gonna die for me”) No Room at the Inn.
