Off the record

Some, admittedly, are doing little more than sticking sleighbells on a potential B-side and hoping we'll be too desperate to notice a sub-par product when urgently seeking stocking-fillers (Is This Christmas by The Wombats featuring Les Dennis, anyone?). 

But a few others are doing something classier with Christmas, in an attempt to ensure that this year Jona Lewie can try and stop the cavalry someplace else.

Retro Scots Glasvegas this week put the fairy on top of a marvellous year by releasing their EP A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like a Kiss) through Columbia. With a title that paraphrases a Phil Spector song and a sound wrapped in drums and piano that echo as though recorded down a well (and not a sleighbell in sight) it's clearly in thrall to Spector's A Christmas Gift to You, probably the greatest seasonal album ever.

However, original songs like Cruel Moon, Please Come Back Home and Fuck You, It's Over make it clear that a Glasvegas Christmas is hardly a cosy time by the fire. Also avoiding the usual cliches is surfing guitarist Jack Johnson, whose new album This Warm December: A Brushfire Holiday Vol 1 (Brushfire) is a remarkably sunny compilation of mostly new songs by himself and those he has signed to his label. Zee Avi's No Christmas For Me and Money Mark's Stuck at the Airport make festive misery sound like marvellous fun, while Johnson may be the first person to strum Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer as though at a summer barbecue.

Even more upbeat is Christmas A Go Go (Wicked Cool Records), compiled by Steven Van Sandt of The E Street Band, which features vintage novelties including Come All Ye Faithful Surfer Girls by The Chevelles, Santa Drives a Hot Rod by the Brian Setzer Orchestra and Keith Richards singing Run Rudolph Run.

Going further and playing it entirely for laughs is American comedian Stephen Colbert, whose A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! is now in the iTunes store. It includes Elvis Costello, Feist and Willie Nelson, tracks such as Little Dealer Boy and Can I Interest You in Hannukah?, and John Legend singing about nutmeg but meaning something else entirely ("Girl don't make me beg/I wanna nog your egg").

However, I'm still searching for the new Christmas song to stand alongside the classics and last at least till next year. Lenka's sweet All My Bells Are Ringing, on The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs (Columbia) has potential, but it looks like we remain destined for ever to be dreaming of a White Christmas with Frosty the Snowman in a Winter Wonderland. Let's keep hoping for next year, though. If someone can finally write a song to trump Cowell, that would be one Christmas wish well and truly granted.

New on the net
*Amazon.co.uk quietly launched the latest salvo on iTunes this week, opening the UK arm of its MP3 store. With the new albums by Take That, Coldplay and Kings of Leon on sale for a meagre three quid, as bargain basements go it's pretty impressive.

*AIDS charity (RED) continues to stick its finger in as many pies as possible with the introduction of a new music subscription service, (RED)WIRE at www.redwire.com. For £4 a month it promises to give you exclusive weekly downloads by A-listers, starting with the Killers and Neil Tennant. U2, Bob Dylan and Jay-Z are also promised.

*UK country label Loose is giving away three free downloads of Christmas-connected songs such as Much Wine by The Handsome Family and Tell the Lord by Goober and the Peas. Get them on consecutive Fridays starting today at www.loosemusic.com