Dipping a Toe in Sufjan Stevens
A sampler of the sensibility if not the music from his new five-disc set of Christmas music, "Silver & Gold."
Low's Christmas (1999) and Sufjan Stevens' five-disc Songs for Christmas (2006) went a long way to make Christmas music cool enough for indie rock. "Just Like Christmas" by Low has started to gain some traction toward entry into the Christmas canon, but the sheer quantity and breadth of Christmas music Stevens has recorded makes his contribution to the holidays a benchmark. Songs for Christmas is alternately serious and playful as he records songs in the voice of the season and others that are only Christmas-y because the word "Christmas" is in them.
He's back with another five discs' worth of Christmas music - Silver & Gold. To promote it and its accompanying holiday tour, he made not one but seven promotional videos, the best of which are genuinely funny, while some are merely very silly. Here are my two favorites and links to the others.