'We bring you an Irie Christmas and a dancehall New Year,' Miller sings on this bright, irreverent set, recorded in 1978, just two years before the Inner Circle frontman's untimely death at age 27. And if you think Christmas music has lost its sense of religious meaning, 'The Word Was Made Flesh' is all you'll need to reset your spiritual clock.

'On Christmas Eve' recalls old-time Broadway musicals, while 'My Lovely Flax Field,' connects to a distant, more exotic past. Mixing modern and ancient, Christian and pagan, sung in a clean, distinctly Baltic vocal style, this music powerfully evokes the richly textured, American immigrant experience. If you're looking for actual, traditional Christmas music, you couldn't do better than this rich, fascinating album of carols done by the New York Latvian Concert Choir, which is conducted by 74-year-old Andrejs Jansons. ‘Christmas Joy in Latvia – Latvian Christmas Cantatas’ (2012).When Rivers Cuomo sings 'Oh, come let us adore him' on 'O Come All Ye Faithful,' his creepily deadpan vocals sound like he's stalking the Baby Jesus, not celebrating him, and on the pooch-metal rendition of 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas,' he's like a Dickensian droogy ready to burn his crummy Victorian orphanage if he doesn't get some figgy pudding, stat! Hilariously, they choose only the most Jesus-y tunes to bash out in their vaunted flat-lined power-pop style.

Weezer bring it by the sleigh-load on this six-song EP.

If there's one thing the centuries-old tradition of holiday music has always lacked, it's irony.

Soft christmas music for sleeping