A Kool Kat Kristmas Volume 3, various artists (Kool Kat)

This New Jersey indie label has provided us with two previous volumes of sharp power pop holiday recordings, and they're back for 2019 with a new collection. It's only available on CD, there's no download or other format available at this writing. As I mentioned earlier, the Athanor single "I Remember You on Christmas" was compiled here, along with Everet Almond's "Have a Very Very Very Merry Christmas," a sharp Spector/Beach Boys homage, the Decibels' 60s-style "Christmas Wish," The Junior League's ballad "Holiday Bouquet," The Season's Greeters' bluesy "Santa's Leaving Town," and Nick Frater's more 70s-sounding "Christmas Is Cancelled." Richard Turgeon insists he's "Skippin' Christmas" and running off to California in a nice mid-tempo strut, the Stan Laurels give us "Noche Buena," but don't worry, it's all in English, and Stephen's Ruin ramps up the garage band organ on "A Child's Christmas." Emperor Penguin goes all "Rocky Raccoon" on us with their faux-Western "Lonesome Cowboy Christmas," Tommy and the Rockets perform the uptempo "December Snow," Ed Ryan cranks up the intensity even more with "Noel (You've Gotta Sing)," and Steve Somerset's Shadow Kabinet takes the collection out on a down note with "Compliments of the Season," a folk-rock holiday protest song with a few currently timely references, and I think you know what I mean by that. Yet another fine collection of a currently neglected style of rock 'n roll music. Note that $5 of every sale goes to the American Cancer Society. UPDATE: Stubby, and commenter Rich Woods, both rushed to the intertubes to tell me that Futureman Records has the download for this album over at Bandcamp. Also, though I tend to favor Amazon links where possible due to the few pennies they throw at this website, it's only fair to let you know that you can get the CD from Kool Kat's own website.