The prolific Sufjan Stevens has taken a break from making albums devoted to each of the fifty states to release a five-CD collection of original, covers, and classic holiday tunes. The set, entitled Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas Vols. 6-10 is a sequel to 2006’s Songs for Christmas, Vols. 1-5. So, if you have not been hearing enough holiday music to get you in the mood for the season, check out the three-hours on the collection of 52 songs.
On his website, Stevens ponders “what is it about Christmas music that continues to agitate our aging heartstrings?” And he answers:
“Christmas music does justice to a criminal world, marrying sacred and profane, bellowing obtuse prophecies of a Messiah in the very same blustery breath as a candy-coated TV-jingle advertising a string of lights and a slice of fruitcake. Gloria!
“Who can save us from the infidels of Christmas commodity? Look no further, tired shopper, for your hero arrives as the diligent songwriter Sufjan Stevens: army of one, banjo in one hand, drum machine in the other, holed up in his room, surrounded by hymnals, oratorios, music charts, sacred harp books, photo-copied Readers Digest Christmas catalogs—all the weaponry of Yuletide incantations—singing his barbaric yawp above the snow-capped rooftops.”
What is your favorite song on Sufjan Stevens’s new collection? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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