The now-online-only music/other arts magazine has a long history of distributing various artists collections of music, including Christmas collections, and this is the 2013 holiday edition, free for download from Noisetrade. (Noisetrade requests "tips" to support the artists, but in this case there's a strictly free download button provided.) This straddles the adult alternative and Americana genres, and nearly all this stuff is previously or currently released. As a result, I'm just going to mention stuff that's on here that hadn't crossed my radar before this. "Christmas Thyme" is by The Olms, the Pete Yorn/J.D. King project from earlier this year, and this original song is a nice 60s pop outing featuring acoustic guitar and trumpet fills. Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors offer the piano-led ballad "Everything's Changed at Christmas But You," Maggie Chapman sings of lost love at the holiday in "Could've Been Summer," J Roddy Walston & the Business take a grungy stab at gospel in "Jesus Gonna Do His Best," the David Mayfield Parade go old-school pop country with "They Shined Up Rudolph's Nose" and The Last Bison lead their version of "Carol of the Bells" with banjo. There are also cuts from Sufjian Stevens, Nick Lowe, Bright Eyes, Otis Redding, Good Old War and Seabird, but they've all been mentioned here before. Can't argue with the price even if you have a lot of these songs.
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