A Very Cherry Christmas 10, various artists (Cherryade)

Britain's Cherryade label reaches the milestone 10th collection for 2014, although things are a little different nowadays. The label has not been quite so active in the past couple of years, so where past collections were composed predominantly from contributions by the label roster, the most recent Cherry Christmas discs reach farther afield for songs. As with Cherry 9, the current collection received curation assistance from Gareth Jones, host of a popular music podcast, and it's very much in keeping with the previous nine editions in terms of giving us the alt-indie view of the holiday season. Indeed, the current collection resembles the mix discs compiled by obsessed music hobbyists, and of course (see sidebar of this site) you'll never hear me say a discouraging word about that. A couple tunes have appeared in other places, like Los Campesinos!' "Kindle a Flame In Her Heart" and Very Most's "Wombling Merry Christmas," and some of you might have encountered others that I've missed until now. Kicking off the limited issue (100 discs, no download) is The Thyme Machine's "Driving Home For Christmas (Presents)," a fun indie-rock song about trying to visit family after forgetting to bring the presents. Among the obvious covers are Simon Love's version of "Santa's Beard" by They Might Be Giants, a grungy take of "Back Door Santa" by Ho3, and a slow, meditative version of the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" by The Lost Cavalry. Town Bike does an alt-rock, girl-groupy "Worst Christmas Ever," Happy Fangs also mines grunge for the perfect extended holiday season rave-up "All I Want For Christmas Is Halloween," and Stephen Hudson & the Flat Pandas re-experience the trauma of learning "The Truth About Christmas." Melancholy creeps in with "The Shopworker's Lament" by The French Defence, "I Hope It Snows Tonight" by The Swapsies and "Under Christmas Lights" by Da Mighty D.a.Kid. Musical/spoken word hybrids are offered by Monkeys in Love with "Secret Santa Party #1 (In Comic Sans)" and Helen Arney with "Traditional Family Christmas Argument." Pocket Gods, who have been on numerous Cherry Christmas comps, appear here with "Moobular Bells," which I thought might be the Mike Oldfield classic done with cows but it's not, it's an original done on tubular bells. Quiet Maurader expresses love for turkeys and vegetarian meals with "It's Xmas, So It's OK (To Go and Hug a Turkey)," Sunny Intervals offers a sweet holiday duet with "Christmas In Your Sights," Partly Llama gives an antique folk reading of "The End of the Journey," and Jack Hayter gets his holiday shop on in "Xmas Eve in the Pound Shop," which I'm assuming is the British version of that US institution, the dollar store. The Twelve Hour Foundation wraps up with the instrumental "Christmas Follows Shortly," which actually it does, as I'm writing this anyway.