Winter Snow and Icicles, The Nines (self-issued)

This five-song EP from 2006 is a wildly limited edition, only 500 copies available from this Toronto pop-rock group. "It's Christmas" has the group doing the Beach Boys' best impression of the Four Freshmen a capella before bringing in the instruments, "Snowbound" is a piano and strings ballad, "Christmas" is a vocal counterpoint backed by acoustic guitar, "Goodnight My Love" gets that post-15 Big Ones Beach Boys influence with electric piano and backing vocals set off with just a touch of jingle bells, and "Winter Song" sets up a military shuffle with acoustic guitars to tell its story. A live version of "Goodnight My Love" recorded with the Toronto Symphony was available via download to those lucky enough to get the original release; the original five songs remain available as a download from Amazon or iTunes.