Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol. 3, various artists (Crisis)

Only just discovered this charitable effort mounted on behalf of Wales' nonprofit Crisis, which fights homelessness. It's a huge playlist, taking just short of two hours to listen to, and in keeping with the name it's a roster of indie artists playing Christmas songs. You'll find performances from bands we've covered here in the past, like the Futureheads, Lisa Mychols, the Pearlfishers, the Hannah Barberas, Helen Love and Ricardo Autobahn, but the preponderance of the playlist offers songs I haven't heard before, though I'm pretty sure they've been curated from around the British Empire. Sonically this 2023 collection might remind you of the Cherryade compilations, although there aren't many artists from the lo-fi realm here. The rundown here will be incomplete, but when you grab this from Bandcamp, you can hover over the song titles and click on the "info" tag to learn more about each individual artist. Among the highlights are Bjear featuring Ella Ion with the ethereal "Sleep Sound," Bunnygrunt's short tribute to the Velvet Underground "All I Got For Christmas Was This Lousy Boy," Caleb Nichols' ballad "I Fell In Love On Christmas Day," Lisa Mychols' "The Joy Is In the Giving" was re-recorded especially for Crisis, Charlie's Hand Movement's "Always a Dream" is mid-tempo power pop, El Gato Roboto's mildly punk "Merry Merry Christmas" is cool, Fascinations Grand Chorus reuses the same title in a girl-groupy rocker, El Sancho repurposes "Blitzkrieg Bob" into "Merry Christmas Joey Ramone," and Vista Blue stays in that lane with "I Want New Ramones Songs For Christmas." Red Shoe Diaries give us "Ice and Snow," Brixton Riot punk out on "Lockdown Holiday," The Wedding Present's "The Loneliest Time of Year" is here, Valentina Way sings about the "Advent Calendar 2022," Wicketkeeper offers the punky "Ho Ho It's Christmas Again," and Wake Up and Smell the Sun goes old-school boogie on "Thee Christmas Card Committee." There's more, all good, and if you can't get enough you can still download Vols. 1 and 2.