Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 11/12/06
Label: Rough Trade

Sufjan Stevens' remarkable prolificacy risks turning him into some kind of freakish novelty, but really, it's not his fault. The singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist - whose planned grand folly, lest we forget, is to release one album for each of America's 50 states (he's already ticked Michigan and Illinois off the list) - has delivered two albums this year alone and wryly acknowledged the scale of the sonic deluge with the title of his most recent effort, "The Avalanche". Music pours out of Stevens at an ever-increasing volume, but it's a measure of the Brooklyn-based artist's titanic talent that no cries of "enough, already!" threaten to drown him out.

"Songs For Christmas" is just that and (typically) much more - a sweetly packaged, boxed set of five EPs (home-)recorded each year between 2001 and now but skipping 2004, when Stevens was busy "anguishing over another album called 'Illinois'". Included is a full-colour, fold-out comic strip, a sheet of stickers and an illustrated booklet that features the musician's explanation of the project, one essay, a short story ("Santa Magic Hands"), Stevens' comic recollections of the "cosmic blooper" that was his family's Christmas, plus credits, lyrics and chord charts for a fireside sing-along.

Given his splurging creativity, it's no surprise that Stevens decided against a compilation album in favour of releasing each EP in its original form. This results in some repetition - "Holy, Holy, Holy" appears on Volumes 1 and V and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" is covered three times, but these versions differ in orchestration and arrangement and anyhow, why edit, when your music is this consistently charming? Maybe it's Stevens' own religious beliefs that imbue this project with genuine, feel-good gooiness (is it a coincidence that the only other cheese-free Christmas albums in existence are the work of famous Mormons Low?).

Maybe it's the fact that his treatment of such over familiar, yuletide tunes as "The First Noel" and "Silent Night" casts them in a new light - sugar-dusted by his angelic voice and sweet orchestrations, certainly, but in no way saccharine. Perhaps it's because Stevens' originals - which include both the goofily festive ("Come On! Let's Boogey (sic) To The Elf Dance!") and the gorgeously frost-spangled ("Jupiter Winter", "Sister Winter" and "Star Of Wonder" - the most successful suggestion ever of the sound of twinkling).

Whatever - "Songs For Christmas" is a(nother) labour of love, gently glowing with hope and humanity and is thus guaranteed to prize cynicism's barnacles from the heart of even the most dedicated Scrooge.

    by Sharon O'Connell