Most traditional Christmas songs celebrate the joy of the season, but there’s a significant subset out there that highlight how shitty the holidays can be when your mood doesn’t align with everyone else’s. “Holidays Are Heavy,” Menace Beach declare on their contribution to your holiday indie-rock playlist. Hell yeah fucking right. Except the song doesn’t completely embrace that — Menace Beach aren’t total cynics, after all. Here’s how frontman Ryan Needham explained the track to DIY:

I love the winter cause I like wearing scarves and chucking snowballs at buses. This song is about the fact that even if you cant buy presents and stuff for people you can always find a way to look out for each other at this time of year where not everyone is having a great time. I also somehow managed to make a chorus that I wanted to sound like Spiritualized, sound like Don Williams, but that’s cool. Heehaw.

After a few EPs and a full-length, the Leeds band has a firm handle on how to wring emotion out of every lick, and they build up a nice little squall here that’s easy and enjoyable to get lost in. Listen below.

“Holidays Are Heavy” will be released on a 7″ with Cowtown via the Too Pure singles club.