"If you tend to be depressed it gets especially bad during the holidays," the famously depressed Harvey Pekar writes in his liner notes to Verve's
Yule Be Miserable. "Everybody's prancing around the Christmas tree...while you lie in bed with a big headache." It's for the neurotics, the cynics, and the Pekar-ish head cases that Verve has compiled this delightfully mean-spirited set. And while it doesn't really go far enough, the 12-song set is a welcome respite from the normal yuletide dreck, if only for the cover painting of a dime store Santa who's drunk for goodness sake. The album's first half features a grooving "Christmas Blues" from
Ramsey Lewis, and
Billy Eckstine's predictable yet necessary "Blue Christmas." But it's at its bluesy core where
Yule Be Miserable really succeeds.
Billie Holiday's "Stormy Blues" is as refreshing as a glass of whiskey after a long day of presents, parents, and clenched-teeth pleasantries, while a vintage 1937 side from
Count Basie sobers like a holiday hangover. "Santa Claus, Santa Claus,"
Jimmy Rushing sings. "Don't send me nothing for Christmas but my baby back to me."
Ella Fitzgerald and
Louis Jordan's vocal flirtation on "Baby, It's Cold Outside" offers a more immediate version of the same randy sentiment. There's no question that
Yule Be Miserable could have been better. The two
Spike Jones cuts lean too close to novelty to work next to its more cynical material, and the latter-day
Aaron Neville and
B.B. King songs sound like typical holiday fare. Still, the album's black and bluesy heart is in all the delightfully wrong places. Stack it next to Rhino's Bummed Out Christmas! and
Meco's Star Wars Christmas Album, and be sure to stock your minibar. ~ Johnny Loftus