The Rosebuds: Best New Christmas Album of the Year

One of the very best of this year's new releases is Christmas Tree Island by The Rosebuds, an indie rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina. The principal members of the group are Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp, and they've got a thing for holiday music. In between their commercial releases for Merge Records, they've taken to releasing one or more holiday tracks on their own each year, often in partnership with some good cause or another. This year's release is even more substantial than the norm -- an entire album of original tunes. "Melt Our Way Out" and "Xmas in New York" are already on my "best ever" list, and all 13 tracks qualify as bona fide holiday treats.   You can download the whole album for less than $8 on bandcamp, where you can also stream any or all of the tracks for free (as of now). Also available on iTunes and amazon (where the whole album's only $5.99 today!). If this were a just world, something from The Rosebuds would soon knock Wham! or Band Aid off the charts, but I'm not getting my hopes up.