Image via coreyjbrewer.bandcamp.com

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Corey Brewer

December is stressful for real — suicides are through the roof, Seattle motorists are crashing into each other because they don't know how to drive, everybody's broke, etc.

In a crisis situation it's important to laugh, as a valve for negative energy. That's the functional purpose of Seattle singer Corey Brewer's "Corey's Classic Christmas Vol. 2," a free album of well-worn 20th Century Christmas ballads with original orchestral backing tracks and new vocal interpretations by Brewer, a punk rocker who has decided to impersonate crooner Robert Goulet in a drunken haze.

I can't tell who's drunk, Brewer or the character he's playing. But somebody's drunk.

He stays in character through 14 tracks of music and fireside banter, blowing down familiar verses and choruses with spoken asides. Area singers Spencer Moody and Andrea Zollo take turns on the mic, also singing badly. The line is stupid, but listenable. Too many songs in a row gets annoying, but don't turn it off. Just turn it down. It stays funny that way.

As suggested at coreyjbrewer.bandcamp.com, the album would be perfect as background noise between awkward pauses at a stuffy holiday party. Somebody: do it.