A Peace of Us, Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom (Carpark)

Dean & Britta are the indie-pop duo formerly of the band Luna, and Sonic Boom is Pete Kember of Spacemen 3. Both artists have previous takes on the holiday, and for 2024 they combined for a full album of lo-fi shoegaze indie pop celebrating the holidays. All are covers, starting with the late David Berman's "Snow Is Falling in Manhattan" and proceeding through a cool, almost synth-pop take on "Pretty Paper," country-ish influences on "He's Coming Home," Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December," and Eddy Arnold's "Christmas Can't Be Far Away," a slow instrumental "Greensleeves" called "Silver Snowflakes," a quiet version of Harry Nilsson's "Snow," a James Bond nod with "Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown," a Hal David number, Roger Miller's "Old Toy Trains," the Bing/Bowie medley "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy," and previously released tunes "Little Altar Boy" and John & Yoko's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)." A little off the beaten path sonically, but highly listenable as a whole and chock full of good playlist opportunities. Vinyl, download and streaming available.