This Good Night Is Still Everywhere, Dustin Kensrue (Vagrant)

The sometime member of hardcore band Thrice brings us a holiday album under his own name for 2008, his second solo album. Recorded at home, it has a leisurely vibe, but the simplicity of it is an attractive attribute. It's mostly acoustic with light percussion and it relies mostly on the canon for its songs, but there are a few originals, the title song, the self-explanatory "Christmas Blues," and the somewhat apocalyptic "This Is War." His "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" has him sounding vocally a bit like Bono, though that similarity melts away on the other songs. And he so far is the only one I can recall doing "Fairytale of New York" without calling in a duet partner. Not exactly a barn-burner, but a fairly satisfying album nonetheless.