Review: ROBOT CHICKEN: Freshly Baked Santa Claus Freakout Special (EP)

Is there good value here?

As the kind of person who would listen to Christmas music year-round (if it were socially acceptable), listening to Robot Chicken’s new holiday album Freshly Baked Santa Claus Freakout Special was a pleasant surprise.  Too often, contemporary Christmas songs fall well short of the classics like “White Christmas,” with the obvious exception being Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.”  And don’t fight it.  You know you love that song.  All the tracks on this album are straight from this year’s Robot Chicken Christmas episode in which Santa accidentally eats some pot cookies that were left out, and experiences an intense and existential trip.

Not only are these songs funny, as is the episode itself, but they are quite catchy.  In the first song, Santa croons about voyeuristically watching you all year round in a way that would make the Orwellian NSA uncomfortable.  Later in “What’s the Point” (feat. Jemaine Clement), Santa ponders in Bowie-esque fashion, just what the point of his own existence truly is.  After all, our modern version of Santa was created by corporate America.  And isn’t Christmas supposed to be about Jesus’ birthday, not Santa?

The folks at Robot Chicken did a great job of covering almost every acceptable Christmas music genre too.  Aside from crooning and Bowie, there’s a Christmas blues track sung by Krampus (voiced by Jason Alexander), and even a Christmas rap between Santa and Jesus.

Despite the praise, there is one area where the album comes up short in a rather big way.  The album is, well…too short.  Although its songs are the ones used in the actual animated special – and the special itself is the usual 11-minute episode – the length of the album is just under 6 minutes, and the longest two songs are barely over the one-minute mark.  All of this leaves us wanting more.  Each song is so good that every, single track deserves to be at least 2-3 minutes.  As full-length songs, each track would surely become a contemporary Christmas classic.  Instead, this album runs the risk of being forgotten too soon, at least until next Christmas when Adult Swim will presumably re-air the companion episode.

The verdict:  the album is certainly worth a listen, but since the entirety of the album falls within the Christmas episode itself, one might as well just watch the episode.  It’s certainly hard to justify spending $5.94 for only 6 songs that come in just under 6 minutes.

Freshly Baked Santa Claus Freakout Special is now available on iTunes and the Google Play Store.  The episode is streaming on Adult Swim.