Gwen Stefani, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Fleet Foxes, St. Vincent and Sharon Van Etten have all contributed exclusive tracks to the Amazon MGM holiday movie Oh. What. Fun., which will premiere Dec. 3. An accompanying soundtrack is out the same day from Sony Music Masterworks.
Directed by Michael Showalter, Oh. What. Fun. stars Michelle Pfeiffer as a family matriarch accidentally separated from her family during the holidays. The cast includes Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary, Dominic Sessa, Danielle Brooks, Devery Jacobs, Havana Rose Liu, Maude Apatow, Jason Schwartzman, Eva Longoria and Joan Chen.
Following Stefani’s “Shake the Snow Globe,” which came out last week, the next song from the project is Van Etten’s take on the Pretenders’ 1983 single “2000 Miles,” which decades later still often re-enters the U.K. charts around the holiday season.
“I connected deeply with the underlying narrative from the mother’s perspective in this film,” says Van Etten. “As a mother myself, I resonated with the constant seeking of perfection and the expectations that holidays inherently bring. It reignited the compassion I hold for my mother and mothers everywhere who aspire to provide a place for their families to feel loved, appreciated, needed and relevant.” As for her Pretenders cover, she says, “I tried to honor Chrissie Hynde’s version by collaborating with my band, the Attachment Theory. I hope if the Pretenders hear it, they feel our appreciation and love for Chrissie, the band and this song.”
Also featured on the soundtrack is Tweedy’s cover of the Band’s “Christmas Must Be Tonight,” of which he says, “the Band pulled off the impossible. They wrote a Christmas song that’s joyful and appropriate for the occasion while being strange, emotional and poetic. Who else would call baby Jesus ‘the little stranger?’ To me, this song gets at what this season is about, at its best: the light. ‘Mary carried the light.’ How are we making ourselves a light to each other? How do I bring light into my life? I start with a song like this.”
Elsewhere, St. Vincent takes on “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” Fleet Foxes cover the late Elliott Smith’s “Angel in the Snow” and the bird and the bee recast 10cc’s “The Things We Do for Love.”
“My favorite Christmas songs have an underlying sense of melancholy mixed in with the warmth of their familiarity,” St. Vincent’s Annie Clark opines. “Sung by a person who is presumably alone, ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ is a prime example: ’Next year all our troubles will be out of sight’… the holiday season and its festivities are a temporary refuge, a reprieve after a shitty year. Hopefully the year to come will be better.”
Here is the soundtrack for Oh. What. Fun.:
“Shake the Snow Globe” by Gwen Stefani
“The Things We Do for Love” by the bird and the bee
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by St. Vincent
“2000 Miles” by Sharon Van Etten
“Angel in the Snow” by Fleet Foxes
“Step Into Christmas” by Uwade
“Silent Night” by The Wang Family
“Hot Cocoa” by Gwen Stefani
“Snowqueen of Texas” by Weyes Blood
“Christmas Eve Can Kill You” by Andy Shauf and Madi Diaz
“It’s My Life” by the bird and the bee
“Christmas Must Be Tonight” by Jeff Tweedy
“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Lorely Rodriguez (Empress Of)
“I Heard the Bells of Christmas Day” by The Wang Family
“The 12 Days of Christmas” by Dominic Sessa