Christmas music that doesn't suck

Christmas has a way of being really annoying here in America. I will stipulate that, sure, the crass commercialism is probably responsible for 95% of the obnoxiousness, but  let's not forget about the music. When I hear Bing Crosby crooning "White Christmas" over the lousy PA system at some mall in  mid-November, I tend to want to break things. And as for truly bottom-of-the-barrel schlock like Trans Siberian Orchestra, the less said the better. If, like me, you are  sick of the same old christmas music at this point—when, by dint of repetition, even decent stuff like Brenda Lee singing "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" makes you gnash your teeth, you may find yourself asking "isn't there something that will get me in the holiday spirit that I haven't heard before"?

Yes, yes there is. Forthwith, my list of awesome Christmas music you may or may not have heard before.

1. A John Waters Christmas — Ok, this one might not be new to many, but how can I leave it off the list? It encompasses the gamut of Christmas emotions. You can experience the feeling of being inadvertently creeped-out by Little Cindy's "Happy Birthday Jesus" as well as the joyous emotions that can only come from skanky Christmas sex or listening to songs about skanky Christmas sex, like "Fat Daddy". And let's not forget the most profound Christmas emotion of all: bitterness. You've got that too in "Here Comes Fatty Claus" by Rudolph & Gang with it's refrain of "Here comes fatty and his sack of shit". For the less cynical among you, there are plenty of gems here too: Waters makes no secret of his love of Motown, and "Christmas Time Is Coming (A Street Carol)" by Stormy Weather is a cool find. Little side story: John Waters, who is incredibly gracious in person, autographed my copy of this CD at Soundgarden in Fells Point. If you are from Baltimore, you will immediately recognize that as a quintessential Baltimore experience.
2. Sergei Rachmaninov — Vespers — I recommend this recording with Robert Shaw leading the Robert Shaw Festival Singers. Rachamninov wrote this in 1915, setting text from the Russian Orthodox All-Night Vigil ceremony. Many spine tingling moments in here. Perhaps the most famous is the Nunc dimittis, which lands on a low b-flat at the end. If you sing in choral music, and particularly if you are a bass, you'll know what a feat that is.
3. Kathleen Battle - O Holy Night — Not a full album, but rather a single track you can download as an mp3. What to say about Battle...gosh. A great talent, though one whose voice was often miscast. A terribly hard person to work with (that's putting it nicely). Here, she sings one of the most beautiful carols and does it full justice. Nice arrangement too, whoever did it.
4. Canadian Brass — Angels We Have Heard on High — Another single track mp3 download. This is from the Canadian Brass' album "Christmas Experiment", which, I gotta be honest, I don't much like. Too much bad singing gets in the way of all that glorious brass music. But on this track, that isn't the case: the voices blend nicely. But what makes this stand out is the truly awesome reharmonization of this standard; it honors the spirit of the music but makes it relevant again. Listen from about 2:35 on to see what I mean.
5. An Oscar Peterson Christmas — Oscar's in fine form here, breathing new life into standards and adding a few compositions of his own. Hell, I could listen to this any time of the year.
6. Tom Waits — Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis — Maybe this isn't really a Christmas song; I dunno. I certainly like to listen to it at Christmas. You can download just this track from the album Blue Valentine, but do yourself a favor and get the whole thing. It's a good album and it finds Tom Waits somewhere along the road between Small Change and Swordfishtrombones. There was a period of time where I used to like to get drunk and listen to this album. It's good drunk music: sad and funny and wry... I think that makes it good Christmas music too.