For Your Listening Pleasure

Sufjan Stevens—Songs for Christmas
Volumes I-V Singalong ((IN STEREO HI-FI))

Two years ago I reviewed Sufjan Stevens’ CD Seven Swans. Since then I’ve been addicted (obsessed?) with his music. I still feel now as I did when I reviewed Swans then; Stevens’ music is, “thoughtful, eerie, and incredibly deep.” There something hauntingly beautiful about this stuff.

Songs for Christmas is a collection of five disks that Stevens created as Christmas gifts for his friends and family over a period of several years. Each of the disks contains both standard hymns and traditional Christmas music as well as several tunes that Stevens wrote himself. Each is unique and unusually beautiful.

For the rest of this week, if you have an iTunes Music Store account, you can download one of the tunes from this collection—That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!— for free. But if you decide to buy the collection, don’t get it from the iTunes Music Store. The actual boxed set comes with stickers, a short story by Sufjan, lyrics, chord charts, comics, and videos, all for the same 20 bucks. Instead, buy it from Amazon or direct from Sufjan’s label, Asthmatic Kitty Records. You can also try the whole set before you buy by streaming tunes from the disks here.