In 2000 tedious English radio station XFM persuaded a gaggle of left-field types for a Christmas cd - You can hear the contribution from Saint Etienne over at Spoilt Victorian Child and the live Peel Session version of Belle & Sebastian's O Come O Come Emmanuel (as well as a tonne of other festive favourites by the band) is available at Orbis Quintis. Here are my favourite tracks...Grandaddy - Alan Parson's In A Winter WonderlandAlan Parsons is one of those artists, like Camel or Uriah Heep that boring sixth formers liked when I was in first year (all the cool sixth formers had all been expelled for dying their hair and scrawlling Anarchy in the UK lyrics about the place) so I've never really had much interest in exploring his work. So I don't know if he ever was in a Winter Wonderland. This track shares with Grandaddy's finest work, the feeling that it was made by Robots yearning for an archaic and pastoral existence. Eels - Everything's Gonna Be Cool For ChristmasEels provide Novacaine For the Festive Soul. If only more bands wrote songs about how everything is gonna be ok eventually, the world would be a better place. And so would music. The Webb Brothers - Everyday Is ChristmasJimmy Webb's lads make Roy Wood's wish come true. All good Christmas Records need a dash of jaunty power pop and The Webb Brothers' tune is pure pop class. El Ves - Feliz Navi-NadaThe Mexican Elvis (hehehe El Vez former website has a message saying that "El Vez has left this url")John Lydon, Jah Wobble, and Keith Levine got song writting credit on this track - to find out why listen to the song. LinksBuy : Grandaddy. Eels, The Webb Brothers, and El Vez Merry Christmas.