Ding-Dongs Merrily Get High Popical Island****

Excuse my rampant enthusiasm, but this is the best Christmas album released this year. Tim Emmy? Pshaw! Smith Burrows? You kidding me? She Him? Sham! No, this is the cracker du jour, decked out in the best Christmas-hued songs you'll hear in an age. It's a free-for-all, basically, from the Popical Island label's roster of Grand Pocket Orchestra, Pantone 247, The Walpurgis Family, Yeh Deadlies, Tieranniesaur, Popical Island Showband and Squarehead – who provide the album's only non-original tune, an attitude-perfect rendition of Darlene Love's/Phil Spector's Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). DIY compilations rarely come as tuneful or as tasteful. See myspace.com/popicalisland

Download tracks: Pantone247, Get Off with a Stranger (at Christmas); Yeh Deadlies, Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This (It's Christmas); Tieranniesaur featuring The Sleigh Belles, Christmas Song