British indie label Cherryade has stuck doggedly to its long-running tradition of an annual Christmas compilation, although they've been hindered a bit in recent years with the transition to downloading and streaming. Seems they don't have permission to distribute more than a couple tunes electronically, so the main distribution point is the physical CD, of which there are only 200 this year. With 25 songs on board, I'm going to point you to the highlights of this 2018 compilation. The Flatmates kick things off nicely with the pop-rocker "Come On Santa," Cassidy & Gamble warn kids to be good with the folky talk-sing "Take Another One Out the Bag Santa," Building Rockets declare that "Tonight Santa's Gonna Rock Out," The Raptors push the concept further with "It's Christmas (Have a Rock 'n Roll Time)," and Final Clearance embed a commercial for this collection (unintentionally) with "Let's Have an Indie Rock Christmas." Gang Clouds address the common holiday crisis of illness with "Let's Spend Christmas In Our Beds," Godammit Jeremiah steal Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" and replace the lyrics with "Office Christmas Party," while Lach addresses the same cultural readymade with "The Office Christmas Party (We All Fall Down)," and the Happy Somethings steal a B-52s riff to propel their strummy lament "It's Christmastime (We're As Miserable As Sin)." Pomegranate gather around the living room piano to extol "The Greatest Day," Les Bicyclettes de Belsize appropriate King Wenceslas to tell their own Christmas story on "The Old Bohemian," The Applepie take an imaginitive power-pop approach to "Angels We Have Heard On High," The Sunbathers lament the passing of "The Man Who Loved Christmas," Trust No One breaks out the synths for "Walking In the Air," as do Spray with their story song "The Ballad of Xmas '99 (Oh Cliff)," and the Yellow Melodies rock out hard with "Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad." Lorna sneaks a little "Telstar" into her Spector-esque "Broken Stars," the band 365 seem to be channeling Flight of the Concords with "December," Entre-Knobs channels Modern English with "Christmas Is Over," and the Milton and Jones song "This Life (This Christmas)" appears here as well. Preorders are being taken at Bandcamp.
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