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A vintage holiday record from Merle Haggard gets a new spin, along with releases from Michael Buble and Kellie Pickler. And, of course, there's another Charlie Brown Christmas tribute album.

Here's a look at the 10 CDs from the past year that are virtually guaranteed to impress friends, relatives and potential lovers. You don't even have to listen to them — just put them in your collection and memorize what's written here.

Choosing five favorite recordings is a tall order for any music lover, but especially for Yo-Yo Ma. The musically omnivorous super-cellist picks his top five favorites.

Taking their name from an old sci-fi movie about a zombie invasion, Zombies of the Stratosphere write extremely catchy, jangle guitar pop with hooks that recall classic '60s groups like the Kinks.

Measha Brueggergosman is a young soprano on the rise. Her major label debut, Surprise, features offbeat cabaret songs by Satie and Schoenberg. She describes the CD as "classical music letting its hair down."

Born in London and raised in Harlem, 25-year-old Nellie McKay has already carved out a name for herself as a singer, songwriter, musician, actress and comedian. Hear McKay perform a concert from WXPN and World Café Live in Philadelphia.

The opera star is known for her musical obsessions, her latest being the music and repertoire of 19th-century diva Maria Malibran. Bartoli has built a traveling shrine to Malibran, and they're currently on tour together.

Eilen Jewell is a 27-year-old Boston-based musician known for her classic country and folk style, her emotional singing and her dramatic uses of silence. Her latest album is saturated with sorrow. Hear an interview and performance from WXPN.

Lucy Bland's debut, full-length release, Down to Sea Level, is a soul-warming balm for the endlessly rainy days of their hometown Seattle, Wash. Delicate, electronic beeps and pops mingle with melodic strings and singer Cat Biell's cozy vocals. It's the sonic equivalent of lazing in a gently swaying hammock, under a cloudless day at the beach.

Throughout "In the Evening," which Dalton would later record for her studio debut, she infuses a Leroy Carr song with bluesy, woozy weariness, drawing the sorrow out of every note. It's hard not to view the track through the prism of Dalton's haunted life.