Monday, December 11, 2006
Christmas in December. ... Wait.
Somewhere, a hipster is torn.
There's a stigma out there about many indie music fans. And that stigma is that they all hate Christmas music. Jesus, too.
However, paradoxically, they love Sufjan Stevens. So Stevens' newest release, a collection of 42 Christmas songs (including 17 of his own compositions) is sure to cause confusion among those who think Christmas and everything surrounding it is silly.
Those people can just deal with it, I say.
The story here is that Sufjan, starting in 2000, recorded a disc of Christmas songs that he would send to his family and friends. He did it each year, except for 2004, when he was recording Illinois. And now, he's decided to release all five discs together, along with some supplemental material, to the general public.
And you know, it's pretty darn good stuff.
He tackles a lot of the traditional Christmas songs that everyone knows (O Holy Night, We Three Kings, Little Drummer Boy, etc.) but he also delves into some lesser known songs, like "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming."
Seriously?
Actually, he sings that twice. Same for "Once in Royal David's City." We always sing "Lo" on Christmas Eve at my church, and I find it a little bit boring, but it's still worth it to hear the treatment he gives the song. And I still find it cool that someone whose fan base is heavily composed of snobbish, cynical indie fans would deal with songs that are so blatantly Christian in nature.
Apparently Sufjan doesn't care. He's doing what he likes. Granted, it may not be as noble as it first appears, because he probably has enough cred at this point to release a 10-disc concept album about how he IS Jesus, and his fans would still call it a masterpiece.
Musically, there is some filler here, but there's a lot of good stuff to enjoy. Perhaps most interesting is hearing the development of his music over the course of five years. The first discs are very banjo-oriented, with plenty of plucky melodies and (more) simple arrangements. As it moves on, you hear a shift from that into more complex songs that feature plenty of the typical bells-and-whistles-and-flutes-backed-by-choral-voices that we heard on Illinois.
Of the traditional songs, if you're asking, I really like "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (though it's not a Christmas song), "O Holy Night," "We Three Kings," and "What Child is This?"
Among Sufjan's original stuff, he's put together a delightful, peppy song called "Come on! Let's Boogie to the Elf Dance!" that is just as much fun as it sounds. "It's Christmas Time" is another highlight that comes along later in the set.
So, not to steal Andrew Taylor-Hershberger's theme, but I would highly recommend this disc to anyone who enjoys Christmas music. And if you don't like Christmas music, you should buy it anyway -- because it just might change your mind.
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Several of these discs were leaked to the Internet last year so I got a taste of them and I agree with pretty much everything you say here. Sufjan has a very particular schtick born of being a somewhat more thoughtful Christian than, say, most right-wing Evangelicals, so if you've liked what he's done so far, there's no reason not to like his mix of Christmas songs and songs about Christmas.