A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like a Kiss), Glasvegas (Columbia)

This Scottish band just put out their first album in 2008, but they included with it a Christmas EP. On iTunes, the new album includes the EP as "Bonus Tracks Edition," but the band is promoting it as a separate entity, though it's apparently being given out with the album. (Click on the cover to grab it from Amazon.) The songs are all originals except for a version of "Silent Night (Noapte de Vis)." The opening song, "Careful What You Wish For," sets a skeptical tone for the holiday. The title song feels like the breakout tune, an ethereal ballad of wonderment with a chorus lyric punned on a Phil Spector tune. "Please Come Back Home" is self-explanatory with a U2 sound, "Cruel Moon" is a song of isolation at the holiday, and that leaves "F**k You, It's Over," a holiday breakup song that mutes the holiday references in the repetition of the title. The song is well done, if a bit depressing. Can't think of a time when a new band went right to the Christmas goodies, so let's give them credit for that, too.