Hark!

Our good friend Sufjan Stevens released a five-volume Christmas album a little before the season this past year. Thanks to the lovely Miss Ballard, I now find it on my mind and in my ears almost nonstop.

Boasting 42 songs, the album is a mix of classical Christmas hymns, Sufjan originals, and hymns that are not typically associated with Christ's birth. Most of the originals sound like something elves would sing rather than angels, and the strength of the album definitely lies in Sufjan's renditions of the classics. The secret? Don't change much.

Recorded in 2001 apparently in and around the time he was working on Enjoy Your Rabbit and Michigan, many of the songs have the signature rolling banjo lines and wind instruments reminiscent of A Sun Came. Throughout the five discs of this set Sufjan seems to have a particular affinity for the French carols and tunes. O Come O Come Emmanuel, O Holy Night, and The Friendly Beasts stand out melodically from the rest. Songs like Come Thou Fount, Amazing Grace, and Holy Holy Holy don’t typically fit with Christmas carols, but they sound so good, it’s hard to complain.

Interspersed between hymns and originals are a few short instrumentals, often songs that have either been done in full with lyrics previously on the album, or are to come later on. While these are pleasant to listen to and help move the experience along, I was disappointed to find two of my favorite hymns were given only the 45-second wordless treatment: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Angels We Have Heard on High.

Sufjan’s Christmas originals are somewhat confusing to me as they nearly always tend towards the goofy and ridiculous. His exquisite handling of O Come O Come Emmanuel and hearing his newer and newer music in the past few years leads me to believe that he could be quite capable of writing some pretty extraordinary hymns himself, both lyrically and musically. I suppose that since this was recorded six years ago, there’s much to be said for musical maturation, and I’m anxious to see if he ever revisits this medium of Christmas music.