"Rust Never Sleeps," as Neil Young once sang. But in Tucson in the Arizona desert, the air is so dry that rust sleeps longer than it does elsewhere. Take Calexico. The band's two founding members, Joey Burns and John Convertino, have been playing together since the early 90s, and they still manage to make records that are as fresh as a frozen margarita. Seasonal Shift, at least their fifteenth album, is devoted to Christmas carols. But it's not Christmas as we know it. Calexico composed most of the songs, and borrowed others from John Lennon and Tom Petty. And down the years, the band has built up an excellent network, with a lot of contacts among Latino musicians. We find them on Seasonal Shift : Camilo Lara of the Mexican Institute of Sound, singers Gaby Moreno and Gisela João and of course some acoustic guitars and mariachi brass, which are all part of the Calexico style. Among the guests there is also a wise man from the east: the Nigerien guitarist Bombino. As in a Spanish, or Mexican cantina, all these guests are inventing songs like gifts to open under the tree: feel-good, joyful but never saccharine, they offer a peaceful, album-length interlude. Calexico borrows a little from Manu Chao at the end of the album, to get the cacti dancing. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz