New York City’s High Plains Drifters by “Alone on Christmas Day”

Style and panache coupled with a substantive skillset goes a long way for me in popular music. New York City’s High Plains Drifters is a near-ideal example of those elements meeting in seamless accord. The accessible yet cosmopolitan nature of the band’s latest single “Alone on Christmas Day” produces unabashed fun that no one should call a guilty pleasure. It’s a pleasure, pure and simple, and you can toss any qualifiers aside.

It is not often that you can say hearing a song about unrequited love/desire is a pleasure. The High Plains Drifters succeed in doing so on two distinct fronts. The first is the track itself, a streamlined and tasteful pop rock tune that isn’t afraid to tackle its subject with a nudge and wink that never cheapens the listening experience.

The second is the song’s video. The High Plains Drifters spare no effort in producing an even funnier accompanying clip that practically crackles with inspired creativity and fresh lunacy. It does not really operate in a traditional storytelling fashion, ala some sort of short film acting as a conceptualized partner with the songwriting. There’s no question, however, that The High Plains Drifters seize the video as an opportunity to further ingratiate themselves with listeners.

They have earned the audience’s favor for less than five years. A promising 2019 debut preceded their most recent collection, an EP entitled Songs of Love and Loss, and they are likely on the cusp of a third release. If “Alone on Christmas Day” indicates a new EP or longer set to arrive, The High Plains Drifters’ next move surely solidifies their position as one of the brightest rising acts working today in American popular music.

Songs such as “Alone on Christmas Day” are lighting the way. Anyone expecting a lush mid-tempo lament will be disappointed or else pleasantly surprised as the band runs through, instead, a melodic mid-tempo jaunt that’s brisk without ever sounding rushed. The chorus provides listeners with one of the song’s defining moments without ever lapsing into self-pity sentimentality.

Fans of concise songwriting will enjoy the direct, simple rhymes that never sound forced. Lyricist Larry Studnicky has crafted near-perfect verbal accompaniment for an arrangement composed by band member Mike DoCampo, John Macorn, and producer/band member Greg Cohen. Studnicky’s vocal presence underscores the song’s humor in low-key fashion and the cool, restrained phrasing he utilizes sounds delightfully at odds with the emotions and subject matter of the song.

There is no question that the track is idiosyncratic. It isn’t, however, so alien to our sensibilities that listeners will grope for connection. Anyone who has longed for someone they can’t seem to ever quite capture will relate to this stylish bemoaning of rejected love. The High Plains Drifters are steadily making a case for being one of the most talented indie acts out there today and bear all the hallmarks of an unit capable of crossing over into the mainstream marketplace. “Alone on Christmas Day” may be the tune that gets them there.

Timothy Ball