Joyeux Mutato, Mark Mothersbaugh (Rhino)

This 1999 album is as close as we'll ever get to a Devo Christmas album, as Mark was a member of the Akron spud-boy ensemble. Today, he's better known for writing soundtrack music for the likes of "Rugrats" and "Duckman," among others. Listening to this, we at Mistletunes suddenly realized we're partial to lyrics over music, as we were initially disappointed at the instrumental nature of the album; only "I Don't Have a Christmas Tree (Soylent Night)" has conventional vocals, although they are mutated somewhat. But the music slowly started to work its magic. Mark's modus operandi is to work in all electronic instruments, grab something familiar and then go off on a tangent. The opening track, "Blue Joy," takes off from "Joy to the World" and builds into something melancholy yet Christmasy. "Midnight Wind-Up Toy" takes phrases of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and evokes ricky-ticky toys that work on tightened mainsprings. And so it goes through 12 tracks and 79 minutes. The music was originally created to accompany an art installation and was packaged in an outrageous felt Digi-Pak with suitably deranged cover art in a limited edition of 3,000. But it's been reissued in a less lavish package, although all versions appear to be out of print at this time.