Wheat: Hope And Adams (City Slang)

Oho! What's this little gem that Santa has slipped under my tree? Like a slow-burning yule log, this second album from Massachusetts band Wheat takes its good ol' time to smoulder, but as you settle back and absorb the atmosphere of Slow Fade, Don't I Hold You and Who's The One, you'll notice a fine, warm feeling wafting around the room. Led by Scott Levesque, Wheat are cut from the same sheaf as Mercury Rev, Will Oldham, Smog and Radar Bros; sometimes they can sound like a more reflective Pavement, and at other times they can resemble a smokier version of Flaming Lips, but you can't argue with the rugged individuality of songs such as Raised Ranch Revolution and Body Talk Parts 1 & 2. Do yourself a musical favour this season - trash all those tacky CDs you got for Christmas, and grab a handful of Wheat.

- Kevin Courtney

Village People: Greatest Hits (Wrasse Records)

How many times during the party season have we raised our arms aloft to the jubilant strains of YMCA? Now we can do that silly semaphore dance in the privacy of our own homes, thanks to this compilation of The Village People's finest, flouncing moments. Relive the unbridled disco decadence of yore in the company of Policeman, Cowboy, Construction Worker, Indian, Leather Man and G.I., and smell the vintage cheese of In The Navy, Go West and Macho Man. Alas, there's not much else here to tickle the young man's fancy: lesser known tunes such as Sex Over The Phone, Fire Island and Hot Cop lack the requisite kitsch quotient, the "Millennium Mix" of YMCA can't touch the original, and the Megamix of their four biggest hits sounds like a rather messy orgy.

- Kevin Courtney Magic Abroad In The Air (CB)

Crooners don't come much more persuasive than the sophisticated 1930s songster Leslie A. Hutchinson. Handsome, debonair, devastatingly charming, the Grenada-born Hutch was also an incisive interpreter of popular song; check out his elegant Night and Day, the featherlight satire of These Foolish Things, or - imitators eat your hearts out - his rampantly exotic signature tune, Begin The Beguine. This CD, compiled by way of accompaniment to Charlotte Breese's recent biography of the singer, is a delight in itself, and may be ordered online from www.dresscircle.co.uk, price £9.99.

- Arminta Wallace