Thousands of MP3 Albums for $5 (or Less) at Amazon.com

The latest Dum Dum Girls album is one of thousands now on sale for $5 or less at Amazon.com

If you're looking for last-minute holiday gifts for folks on your shopping list (or don't think you'll get the music you want), head over to Amazon.com's music store. It's now having several sales running that together mean thousands of MP3 albums for $5 or less. First off, you can check the more than 1,000 albums for $5 each (this deal is good through the end of January).

If you include the many EPs they're offering at that price, it means there are more than 23,000 MP3 albums for less than five bucks,Amazon says.

Among the 1,000 MP3 albums for five dollars in the alternative and indie rock category (228 albums in all):

• "The Head and the Heart" self-titled
• "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes
• "Cults" self-titled
• "Civilian" by Wye Oak
• "Smoke Ring for My Halo" by Kurt Vile
• "Wild Flag" self-titled
• "Slave Ambient" by The War on Drugs
• "Only in Dreams" by Dum Dum Girls
• "Let England Shake" by PJ Harvey
• "Divine Providence" by Deer Tick
• "Last Summer" by Eleanor Friedberger

… as well as the deluxe version of Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" and albums by the Avett Brothers, Blitzen Trapper, Arctic Monkeys, Tokyo Police Club, Superchunk, Girl in a Coma, and Yuck.

In the just-plain-ol'-rock category, some of the choices include:

• "New Blood" by Peter Gabriel (his reinterpretation of his own songs, with orchestra)
• "Endgame" by Rise Against
• "Duluth" by Trampled by Turtles
• "Disintegration (Remastered)" by The Cure
• "Is This It" by The Strokes

… and albums by the Black Crowes, Green Day, Cowboy Junkies, Drive-By Truckers, Lindsey Buckingham, and many more.

There are also classic rock, pop, R&B, and other genres.

Odd name, odd album cover, good music: Yuck's self-titled album is one of the $5 editors' choices.

If you're not inclined to go searching through the thousands of albums, you can check out Amazon.com's editors' picks of $5 MP3 albums, which winnows down the list of 1,000. It's a diverse bunch, from Phoexix and Wye Oak to Leonard Cohen, Eminem, The Who, and the soundtrack to "The Sound of Music."

Also, for Dec. 24th only, Amazon.com is offering 10 of the year's most popular albums for only $3.99 each. The albums include "Lioness: Hidden Treasures,"the posthumous Amy Winehouse album; the She & Him Christmas album;"Ceremonials" by Florence and he Machine;and "The King is Dead" by The Decemberists.

I hope you get (or got) what you wanted for the holidays, musically speaking. If not, check out the thousands of sale albums above. There are at least five or six I'm definitely buying...