Palladium Records appears to be a combination management company and record label featuring modern pop-rock artists, and for 2015 they've prevailed upon members of their artist roster to contribute to a Christmas album. Map the Stars is on here twice, once with a wildly upbeat and deconstructed "12 Days of Christmas" and again with the midtempo original "This Holiday." Tim Meyers contributes four solo songs, an original "Joy to the World" with no relation to the familiar carol, further originals "For the Holidays" and "A Magical Season," and a thumping-beat version of "O Christmas Tree." He's also part of Fm Radio with Schuyler Fisk, and a song from Fisk's previous Christmas EP, "More Than I Wished For," is here too. "Glow" by Mozella is an original based on a poppy version of the Bo Diddley beat, Kathryn Ostenberg gives us a power pop "Count Down To Xmas" and covers "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in a similar vein, Lucy & the Cloud Parade break out the handclaps on "A New Time," and El May goes midtempo and bombastic on "All the Wonder." Serengeti & the Unknown goes for harder rock on "The Wish List," and just The Unknown break out the chimes and cellos for "Winter Night," and Nicole Vaughn resurrects the old Anita Ward disco chestnut "Ring My Bell" as a Christmas song, proving once again that context is everything. This is another collection worth checking out.
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