Dear December, The Minus 5 (Yep Roc)

Scott McCaughey, formerly of Young Fresh Fellows and sometime R.E.M. stage and session guy, is probably best known nowadays for The Minus 5, which includes him, Peter Buck, and other folks, plus the Baseball Project, adding Mike Mills and Dream Syndicate's Steve Wynn. Apparently Scott was commissioned to write a Christmas song for somebody and he went batshit and composed an elpee's worth of tuneage, as the saying goes. And then the guy had a massive stroke recently, and being a less-than-famous working musician, people are having to ramp up the GoFundMe campaigns to help him out. Needless to say, grabbing a copy of this 2017 holiday album will be a big help as well. The best part is that you don't have to rely on your charitable impulse to take part this way, as this is a fine, fine, supafine rock 'n roll Christmas album. Folks who have previously partaken of Minus 5 and Baseball Project recordings won't be surprised by the sound, but for those who haven't, rootsy rocking rules the day. Guest stars turn up to assist as well, with M. Ward and Chuck Prophet on "See You In December," the Decemberists' Colin Maloy joining for "The Fourth Noel," Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard featuring on "I See Angels," Kelly Hogan and Norah O'Connor backing up the vocalist on "Johnny Tannenbaum," Mike Mills providing a Hanukkah Alert on "Festival of Lights (Hanukkah Song)," and Kelly Hogan duetting on "Yule Tide Me Over." The group's "Your Christmas Whisky" from a decade ago turns up here again, "When Christmas Hurts You This Way" is a jangle-pop take on a sad holiday, "Merry Christmas Mr. Gulp Gulp" whips up a Phil Spector beat to back up a look at a holiday of excessive imbibing, and things wrap up with a hard-rocking "I Still Believe In New Year's Eve." Grab this now and give it as gifts too.