XXX-Mas Week Day One: "Songs for Christmas" Sufjan Stevens

Well kids, after a nice long weekend full of mashed potatoes, corn bake, and tryptophan naps, we're back just in time to start XXX-Mas Week here at ThaBombShelter. Ever since I discovered the CD, "Maybe This Christmas" at Barnes and Noble years ago, I've been a fan of alternative Christmas songs. Maybe not so much weird or strange songs, but rather, Christmas songs by bands that I enjoyed, or songs that I enjoyed by bands I didn't, you know how these things go. Anyway, that album spurred a love of this particular brand of Chrismas music, and so it has grown over the past four years. From this weekend just after Thanksgiving till just before or after Christmas (depending on my mood), I listen to loads of alternative Christmas music, and by the time I stop, my thirst is slaked for yet another year.

This year, I've got a whole new addition to my collection, thanks to the GF. She just got her copy of Sufjan's new box set, "Songs for Christmas", which is a great mix of traditional Christmas music and original stuff. The set came out just before Turkey Day, but it wasn't until this weekend that I was able to give it a good listen. If you were unaware of Sufjan's religious leanings before this, you won't be in the dark for long. While still a long way from evangelical, Sufjan's song choices are often quite steeped in the religious symbolism that this four week salute to consumerism left behind ages ago. At the same time though, his original material is 100% Sufjan. With tracks that range from the exuberant (and tongue-in-cheek titled), "Get Behind Me Santa", to the poignant, "That Was The Worst Christmas Ever!", Sufjan makes sure that he stretches his musical wings and gives us what we all came for.

From the first EP in the collection, we have "We're goin' to the Country". In it, we have not Sufjan singing, but rather, Matt Morgan (label mate and sometimes collaborator) on vocals. Even with the different singer, the song's soul is still solidly Stevens. The music on these discs probably has the most banjo you'll hear outside of the bluegrass belt, but that's okay with me. One of the earliest tracks, this one is also one of the most indicative of the spirit of this collection - at least at the beginning - which was a that of having your friend's over and staying inside during the cold snowy nights and playing some freakin' awesome Christmas songs.

One of the more religious (and more obscure) carols on the collection, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" is more banjo and more quiet living room recording. Most of the tracks in the box were, after all, recorded "at home in Brooklyn, NY" according to the liner notes, and it's pretty evident in every track. It's the pleasant intimacy of a group of people standing around an upright piano and maybe the brown-haired banjo-ist sitting in a wooden rocking chair next to the tree. When the whole room joins in the chorus three minutes in, it's easy to get lost in the feeling of the season.

Probably the most "Sufjan" of all the tracks has got to be the aforementioned, "That was the Worst Christmas Ever!". The song shares many of the same structural elements as my favorite Sufjan song, "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us". It's got the same intricate lyricism and plucking combined with a heartbreaking tale of autobiographical (?) realism so perfect that it's almost tactile in it's detail. The line that stood out first (and every time after that), "Our father yells, throwing the gifts in the wood stove, wood stove...my sister runs away, taking her books to the schoolyard, schoolyard...", it's right there on par with the tearjerking beauty of, "O! How I meant to tease him/O! How I meant no harm/Touching his back with my hand/I kiss him." This level of similarity leads me to believe that these songs, though released two years apart, might have possibly been penned at around the same time, although that is pure conjecture on my end. Regardless, the song is stellar, and not at all what most have come to expect when they think of Christmas songs. That's what makes this genre of music so very special, when bands take the time to pen an original song that takes on the difficult subject of what really happens at holidays with real stress, real tension, and real people.

Not that all of his Christmas memories are bad, Sufjan's version of "Away in a Manger" is endearing enough that even my Grandma would want to pinch his wind reddened cheeks after a long day of sledding. It's got the frayed edges of true folk musicians, even if Sufjan left his days of mere folk music long ago.

The hot jazz horns and organ lines of "Get Behind Me Santa" scream rock Christmas and maybe, maybe a Hot Rum Toddy or three. This is the kind of song you would hear blaring from your Uncle's 1976 Chrysler Cordoba...that is if your Uncle was into 70's era Chicago...and prog folk groups who release excellent Christmas song box sets.

With the trifecta of handsome packaging, excellent tunes, and a great price, you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't have this quality box set spinning through the holiday season and beyond.

Sufjan Stevens Official Site
Buy "Songs for Christmas" on Amazon.com

"Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" Sufjan Stevens
"That was the Worst Christmas Ever" Sufjan Stevens
"Get Behind Me Santa" Sufjan Stevens