After chucking some crappy audiobooks into the trunk of my car, I added a fistful of CDs to my collection while driving across country last month. Here are three of my favorite new recruits:

Marie Antoinette Soundtrack

The film was a major disappointment, but Sofia Coppola proves once again that she can compile a soundtrack album like nobody's business (The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation both boasted dreamy tunes). Though it contains a few classical pieces by Vivaldi, the 2-disc set for Marie Antoinette mostly reflects the film's anachronistic punk sensibility. Siouxsie and the Banshees kick things off with their infectious song "Hong Kong Garden," and Bow Wow Wow and The Cure both contribute multiple tracks. Coppola also summons The Radio Dept., Adam & the Ants and New Order to her revisionist Versailles mixing booth.

Joan Osborne: Pretty Little Stranger

Here's a gem from the gal who faded into relative obscurity after enjoying a monster success with her mid-90s album Relish. She's done some solid work since then, including a terrific album of R&B covers called How Sweet It Is. Pretty Little Stranger, an effort that Osborne describes as her "Nashville album," may be her best work yet. Good luck finding it in stores, though. I left several stores empty-handed until I finally found it at an indie shop in Park City, UT.
Osborne penned several of the songs, including the gorgeous title track and a rockin' number that asks: "Who divided up the days into hours? The hours into minutes? How could they really be that smart? Who divided up the minutes into seconds? They must've had a broken heart." It may look silly in print, but I can guarantee that her gravelly, uninhibited delivery will shake you up in the best way possible.
The well-chosen cover songs include Jerry Garcia's "Brokedown Palace," Patty Griffin's "What You Are" and Roy Orbison's "When the Blue Hour Comes."

Sufjan Stevens: Songs for Christmas

At $22.98 (and you can find it on sale all over the place) this is quite possibly the best music deal of the season. So far the prolific and ingenious Stevens is best known for his ongoing efforts to record an album about every state in the union (so far he's got Michigan and Illinois under his belt). And every year since 2001 he's taken a little time out of his schedule to record Christmas tunes. Songs for Christmas contains five CDs, each representing a different year. Stevens mostly draws on the classics, churning out charming instrumental and vocal renditions of "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger" and three takes of "O Come O Come Emmanuel." Being one of the most prolific writers in the business, he doesn't stop there. He includes several original songs, the most danceable and memorable being "Come on! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!"

The packaging for the collection is more fun than a gingerbread house drowning in gumdrops. Inside you'll find stickers, comics and a singalong-oriented songbook that contains the chords to all the songs. The label on the box informed me that I could find an animated video inside, but so far I haven't found any secret features when I've plugged the discs into my DVD player or computer.