We’re at the time of year now where charity singles and being all Christmassy is compulsory.

Funzo release their debut single ‘This Christmas’ on December 10th and all its proceeds are going to Barnardos. Strange I thought, they are releasing a Christmas tune as their debut? Well they won Christmas FM‘s ‘Search for a New Christmas Classic’ in 2009 and got on TV3 for their troubles.

The six piece  have played over 160 gigs in the past year including spots at Oxegen and Electric Picnic. The band chose the Barnardos charity as songwriter Liam McDermott’s Mum has worked for the organisation since 1993.

All good and charitable and stuff but is it any good? Well it’s not bad actually.  It has all the jingle bells and stuff and is pretty much like a little nursery rhyme. This not a bad thing, you’ll remember it. After a couple of listens you’ll be humming along. It basically tells of a love story at Christmas that’s better than last year. Nice lyrics, my favourite line ‘We didn’t have any mistletoe, you still let me kiss you though’ ah!.

It’s well produced and even though this is the band’s debut, this won’t do them any harm at all. All they got to do is comeback in February or March with a killer track and they’ll be grand. Fair play. Go buy it for two reasons: One: it’s for charity, Two: it’s an Irish band that would appreciate a little bit of spotlight on their release, especially at this time of year when they are up against monster marketing machines. Do it!

Check out the band on Facebook and MySpace

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/6848408″]