Merry Christm-- oh, wait. YAWN!

Sorry, but that was unavoidable. I've just been listening to The Green Days of Christmas: The Holiday Tribute to Green Day and was overcome by a sudden need for a nap. I mean, c'mon! I had just posted my entirely unfavorable review of another recording by these guys, Hell's Bells of Christmas: The Holiday Tribute to AC/DC, when this unsavory companion disc arrived in the mail. Please tell me the others -- holiday-themed deconstructions of Metallica, Blink-182 and White Stripe -- aren't coming, too!

The theory behind these CDs is that you can take a hard-rockin' band's signature music and give it a little holiday makeover for all the good boys and girls to enjoy under der Tannenbaum. But the execution, however, is a schmaltzy, sappy reinterpretation of songs including "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," "Welcome to Paradise," "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Warning" into something you wouldn't even find playing in the lobby of the Hotel Ennui in Dullsville, N.J. Oh, and then they add metronomic jingle bells in the background for that extra holiday oomph.

Sorry, I'm afraid I started to nod off again. I gotta go find something peppier to liven things up -- maybe a little Neil Sedaka or Karen Carpenter would do the trick.

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