Track Listing

1. Jingle$, Jingle$, Jingle$
2. Blue Joy
3. Midnight Wind-Up Toy
4. Bell Boy
5. Happy Woodchopper
6. Only 12 Shopping Days Left
7. Peace and Goodwill
8. Enough Xmas for All
9. You Better Watch Out...
10. Let There Be Snow
11. I Don't Have a Christmas Tree (Soylent Night) [High Tolerance Edit]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173152 in Music
• Released on: 2000-10-03
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
And now for something from the genetically modified world of Devo, from the man who makes the music for The Rugrats, Mark Mothersbaugh. Joyeux Mutato originated as a sound installation for a commercial venture someplace in Los Angeles, and it plays equal parts runway show and holiday Muzak cross-wired by Mothersbaugh's eccentric wit and arch sense of humor. Perfect for hip holiday background music or as a warm-up for that next house-music Christmas party, Joyeux provides occasional holiday tune melodies and mixes them into Mothersbaugh's sonic snowscapes layered with clicks, buzzes, and other sound gadgets. Mothersbaugh, who wrote, performed, and produced all the material, says in his liner notes--complete with drawings and warped mini-Christmas stories--that "this album is for anyone who has ever been traumatized by the Christmas season and is intended to provide solace and shelter from the ensuing onslaught of overheated holiday situations." Maybe he should start reviewing Christmas records, too. For those who would acquire a taste. --Martin Keller

Customer Reviews

If David Benoit had talent, got drunk, and cut an album...
Especially a Christmas album, it might sound a little like this. I have always maintained that David Benoit is the anti-Christ of modern Jazz, with his icky sound effects and creepy "smooth" sound...but I think there is another problem with Mr. Benoit...he just takes himself too seriously.

With Joyeux Mutato we have a member of Devo, doing almost the same sort of sound-effect sampling, smooth sounding jazzy stuff...yet it is all so silly and entertaining. Maybe wearing a flowerpot hat puts things into perspective for some people, but pretention has never been a Devo problem.

Anyway...this is a silly, fun, Muzak-ish holiday album that is just silly enough to serve as a break during endless replay's of Ol' Blues "White Christmas."

A year-round delight
No, this doesn't sound like DEVO. No, this doesn't sound like Rushmore. None of that means it isn't worth hearing. The music on Joyeux Mutato was originally composed to accompany a gallery show, and it excellently creates a lively ambiance of fun. Mark Mothersbaugh's father, best known to DEVO fans for his portrayal of the character General Boy, has said that Joyeux Mutato is his all-time favorite music ever created by his illustrious son: I think that says a lot. This is not music just for children, and it can be enjoyed any time of the year. A limited (and slightly different) edition was released last year on the Rhino Handmade label, and it stayed in my CD player all summer. Joyeux Mutato livens up any rainy day and is an especially nice treat at holiday time. Give it a try this Christmas: you might even find yourself listening to it next July 4th.

egg nog nod
Those of you expecting a Devo X-Mas record will be disappointed. This CD is more in line with Mothersbaugh's "Music for Insomniac" discs in that it is heavily (i.e., entirely) synth-oriented and very repetitive. There are only snippets of recognizable Christmas songs, which is good, but I didn't "feel the spirit" while listening to it. The music is rather obnoxious, but in a charming way. I probably won't play it very often, but I'm glad it's in my collection. Fans of The Residents will probably like this disc.