Records can be horrible mostly around New Year (5)
I believe the answer is:
vinyl
'records can' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'horrible mostly around new year' is the wordplay.
'horrible' becomes 'vile' (I've seen this before).
'mostly' means to remove the last letter (most but not all of the word).
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'new year' becomes 'ny' (abbreviation).
'vile' with its final letter removed is 'vil'.
'vil' going around 'ny' is 'VINYL'.
'be' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vinyl that I've seen before include "PVC" , "Synthetic plastic" , "Flexible plastic for flooring (or old records?)" , "Synthetic resin" , "Plastic used for gramophone records" .)