Hark!, Andrew Bird (Loma Vista)

The singer-songwriter released this EP for 2019 featuring two originals, the mid-tempo "Alabaster" and the ballad "Night's Falling," combining them with a dour reading of "White Christmas" and a whistled "O Holy Night." The remaining two songs are instrumentals, Vince Guaraldi's "Skating" and "Christmas Is Coming." Bird previously put a version of "Auld Lang Syne" on an Amazon Music holiday playlist that is also available for download. UPDATE: Bird, fresh off a regular acting spot in the fourth season of "Fargo," has extended this EP into a full album for 2020. Added tunes include a new original, "Christmas in April," that is an ode to the quarantine, covers of John Cale's "Andalucia" and John Prine's "Souvenirs," a tune "Greenwine" that is a medley of Handsome Family's "So Much Wine" and "Greensleeves," an instrumental "Glad," Schubert's "Mille Cherubini in Coro," which a Google search leads to a Luciano Pavarotti version of the song, and "Auld Lang Syne" is added to the playlist.