A Very Cherry Christmas, various artists (Cherryade Music)

Cherryade is a small independent label in Great Britain, and they've found it worthwhile over the past several years to issue a holiday compilation featuring their roster of artists and some who aren't on their label. The acts heard here run an alt-rock gamut that takes in low-budget folk, pop and retro-60s sounds. And despite only being available via their overseas website, they're actually budget-priced. This first one is from 2005, and not all the tunes on here are Christmas-oriented. Of the ones that are, "Sleigh Ride" by Wanderlust is a nice bit of thrashing on the popular carol, "Have Yourself a Psychedelic Christmas" by Misty's Big Adventure features a Fred Schneider-type vocal singing updated lyrics to the familiar carol (or is that retro lyrics?). The Container Drivers offer "In the Bleak Mid Afternoon," no relation to the antique carol but an original that goes through a couple of movements before the lyrics kick in. David Craigie channels Sufjan Stevens on a shambling "Christmas in a Can," Chihiro offers a folky "The Plans That We Made," and Steveless/Syd Howells goes kind of Wild Man Fisher on "This Is What Dying Is Like (Christmas in Swansea)" and "Seasonal Schizophrenia."