Despite the dark overtone of the lyric we find in the chorus, there’s something really affectionate about the grander narrative at hand in the new single and music video from David King Jones, “The Covid 19 Christmas Song.” It’s implied in this track that darkness is all around us this holiday season, and quite honestly this feels like a fair description on many days of the week. It is perhaps the way Jones addresses us, and more importantly, the strife we’re up against that makes this song feel like a battle cry rather than an elegy, the latter of which being precisely what we don’t need any more of right now.

There’s a rather ominous feel to the melody ascending towards the chorus that strikes me as being incredibly reflective of the tone with which Jones is trying to frame the subject matter here, and this is important for a couple of reasons. First off, by getting a little indulgent with the moodiness of the instrumentation, he never has to be over the top with his poeticisms in this track – which is half the trouble with similarly-stylized content out at the moment. He’s going for something a bit deeper and more soulful than the status quo calls for, and that alone makes this a provocative listen right now.

The music video for “The Covid 19 Christmas Song” essentially sums up the theme of the 2020 Christmas season perfectly without ever having to over-exploit one specific element in the story. Jones could have gone straight political or made this entire narrative about the stresses of trying to stay safe, but he’s instead righteously ambitious with the structure of this video and it winds up being the smartest move he could have made. There’s nothing wrong with excess when it’s employed properly, which is exactly why this release is a true standout.

It’s definitely been a trying year and even more difficult time to have the holidays than it normally is, but I think David King Jones has found quite the amazing solution to 2020 blues in this amazing new material. “The Covid 19 Christmas Song” is pretty much everything its title would have us believe it to be and, in the context of its music video, maybe just a little more. I hope it isn’t the last I hear from this artist, but with a talent like his, I really doubt it will be.

John McCall