A Guaranteed Wham!-Free December

December arrives with its trees and snow globes and the smell of cookies baking in every shop, and somewhere in a mall Wham! is beginning its annual rotation. My playlist for the month goes out of its way to avoid all of that. No jingle bells, no seasonal sentiment, nothing that pairs well with mulled wine.

What it does have: Ladyhawke’s angular guitar pop, sharp and slightly menacing in a way that suits gray afternoons. Lykke Li, who was everywhere that year but still felt like a private discovery every time a track came on. The Ting Tings, almost too catchy, the kind of hook you forgive because it earns it. Then a few newer finds: Mandi Perkins, whose voice has this quality of controlled unease; The Submarines, all woozy warmth; The Script, bigger and more earnest than anything else on the list, somehow making it work.

I put this together in late November and played it on a loop through the whole month. None of it ages like eggnog.