Julie Christmas - Ridiculous And Full Of Blood - LP Gatefold

Through a mixture of her work fronting Made Out of Babies, her collaborations with Cult of Luna and her 2010 solo album The Bad Wife, Julie Christmas has become a visionary adored by alternative music’s fan-base. And now, after 14 years, she’s finally releasing her second record under her own name.

Ridiculous and Full of Blood is the most comprehensive declaration of this musician’s talents yet, assisted by a staggering array of talent. Guitarist/vocalist Johannes Persson (Cult of Luna), drummer Chris Enriquez (Spotlights), bassist/producer Andrew Schneider (Kenmode/ Unsane), guitarist John LaMacchia (Candiria) and keyboardist Tom Tierney (On the Might of Princes) were all paramount in bringing these new, genre-smashing tunes to life.

“We’re all friends, I love the guys in this band,”Christmas says. “They make it look easy. I’m playing with people who are musicians through and through. They’re really talented and smart, and they’re just great people.”

Those talents shine through in myriad ways across Ridiculous and Full of Blood’s 10 songs, from noise rock to punk via shoegaze and alt-pop. Meanwhile, lyrically, Christmas and her collaborators have“brought out different parts of the character that I am”. Even the album’s title, Ridiculous and Full of Blood, was penned as a tongue-in-cheek description of how Christmas views herself.

“If you are throwing yourself into life it can and should get wild!,” she explains. “One day we were at Damnation Festival in front of all these people, then 24 hours later I was back at work, teaching kids how to make solar panels. That’s me: ridiculous and full of blood!”

Although Christmas took 14 years to make a full-length follow-up to The Bad Wife, there’s no doubting that this successor is more than worth the wait. It's impossible-to-pigeonhole songs are destined to not only reinforce the love fans already have for this peerless creative; they’ll certainly win over countless newcomers, as well.