My Site

I am a big fan of Sufjan’s Christmas songs and the proud owner of the first five EP’s collecting his festive output.

Songs For Christmas is a box set of five EPs released over six years between 2001-2006 (the missing year is 2004 when Stevens was  busy making Illinois). These collections of stripped-down carols, covers and originals where originally recorded as gifts for family and friends.

Now he is releasing the follow up(s)!

Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Vols. 6-10 compiles five EPs recorded between 2006 and 2010.

Christmas Unicorn from the new collection, a 12-minute song that includes snippets from the classic “Love will tear us appart”, really great stuff!:

Press release:

“Silver & Gold is more than just another Christmas album, but an ongoing exercise in theme and variation, an annual tradition that offers this songwriter a chance to experiment with fashion and technique without taking himself too seriously. Sufjan’s playful (yet purposeful) expedition through the superficial landscape of sugar plum fairies and marshmallow fluff has produced an exuberant musical account of “all things Christmas” in the pursuit of the sublime. What distinguishes this project from the glut of Christmas albums saturating the market today are Sufjan’s unguarded enthusiasm for the genre itself (the sense of freedom he shows in celebrating with reverence and rebellion) and the belief that Christmas music contains a multiplicity of sacred and secular significance (from Baby Jesus to Babes in Toyland) that is ultimately ours for the taking. It’s safe to say that no one has taken it further than Sufjan, for better and for worse.”

Silver & Gold will be available in CD and vinyl formats, as well as as digital download.

Sufjan Stevens will also hit the road this winter for what is being called “The Surfjohn Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long: Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Pageant On Ice.”, unfortunately for us Europeans it will be USA only.

The CD boxset includes:
1. Five CD EPs
2. Christmas stickers
3. Temporary tattoos  (non-toxic & safe for children)
4. A paper ornament (self-assembly with directions)
5. An apocalyptic pull-out poster
6. Song lyrics and chord charts (sing along with your friends and enemies)
7. Hallucinogenic photographs and psychedelic graphic design (by Sufjan Stevens, drug-free since 1975)
8. Extensive liner notes (introductory salutations and an essay on the Christmas tree by Sufjan Stevens, and a few theological words on the End Times by Pastor Vito Aiuto)

The vinyl boxset includes:
1. Five EPs on 6 vinyl discs
2. Christmas stickers
3. Temporary tattoos
4. A paper ornament
5. A 40-page Christmas songbook with vocal and piano reductions
6. A Christmas coloring book
7. Hallucinogenic photographs and psychedelic graphic design
8. Extensive liner notes

Tracklist:

1.Silent Night
2.Lumberjack Christmas / No One Can Save You From Christmases Past
3.Coventry Carol
4.The Midnight Clear
5.Carol of St. Benjamin The Bearded One
6.Go Nightly Cares
7.Barcarola (You Must Be A Christmas Tree)
8.Auld Lang Syne
9.Christ the Lord is Born
10.Christmas Woman
11.Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light
12.Happy Family Christmas
13.Jingle Bells
14.Mysteries of the Christmas Mist
15.Lift Up Your Heads Ye Mighty Gates
16.We Wish You A Merry Christmas
17.Ah Holy Jesus
18.Behold the Birth of Man, the Face of Glory
19.Ding-a-ling-a-ring-a-ling
20.How Shall I Fitly Meet Thee?
21.Mr. Frosty Man
22.Make Haste To See the Baby
23.Ah Holy Jesus (with reed organ)
24.Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
25.Morning (Sacred Harp)
26.Idumea (Sacred Harp)
27.Eternal Happiness Or Woe
28.Ah Holy Jesus (a capella)
29.I Am Santa’s Helper
30.Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages)
31.Even the Earth Will Perish and the Universe Give Way
32.Angels We Have Heard On High
33.Do You Hear What I Hear?
34.Christmas In The Room
35.It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
36.Good King Wenceslas
37.Alphabet
38.Particle Physics
39.Joy To The World
40.The Child With The Star On His Head
41.I’ll Be Home For Christmas
42.Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
43.The Sleigh In The Moon
44.Sleigh Ride
45.Ave Maria (featuring Cat Martino)
46.X-mas Spirit Catcher
47.Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
48.Holly Jolly Christmas
49.Christmas Face
50.Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
51.It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
52.Up On The Housetop
53.Angels We Have Heard On High
54.We Need A Little Christmas
55.Happy Karma Christmas
56.We Three Kings
57.Justice Delivers Its Death
58.Christmas Unicorn

Preordered!

– Hallgeir