Surf Music by Paul Williams

To this reviewer’s mind, Sufjan Stevens’ 2006 album Songs for Christmas is one of the most, if not the most, revolutionary holiday albums of all time and deserves a 10/10 by any metric. You may ask, why is Songs for Christmas deserving of such an honor when it only got a 7.5 from Pitchfork and when Stevens’s second Christmas album, Silver and Gold (2012), received a 7.8? The answer is simple, but true: Songs was the first of its kind. Well-known for his state-based musical endeavors Michigan (2001) and Come on Feel The Illinoise, (2005), Songs leans into the twee bizarro-folk niche Stevens is most adept at carving for himself, and is arguably some of his most unique work. Songs expands on Stevens’ already experimental tendencies, which is refreshing especially in the famously Christmas-based holiday music genre. For Songs, Stevens covers classic carols, re-imagines others, and writes a handful of his own music, spanning secular and nonsecular wintertime fun. All 42 tracks are tastefully arranged in a way only he can manage, and as you listen you can feel the lyrics digging so deep into unironic musings that it all at once becomes ironic, then unironic again. So, we can establish this record is great. It’s fun. It’s somber. It’s quirky, even. But what puts it over the edge? It’s Sufjan. No other artist in the history of music has been able to take Christmas and make it their own. In the holiday genre, there’s a sharp divide between “christmas music” sung by long-dead crooners or Michael Buble, and the smattering of contemporary artists with a tongue-in-cheek holiday EP. There’s no denying that there are some new classics, but the “Christmasy” vibe sandwiches each note with an unflinching, pepperminty bite. But switch over to Songs, and you don’t hear chestnuts roasting and sleigh bells ringing - you hear the tender, unaging mystery of Sufjan’s soft voice over powdered snow. Our Angel of Indie tamed Christmas, wrapped it up, and put a bow on it for you and for me. If the pure joy of the season of giving doesn’t give a record that special, once-in-a lifetime something, then I don’t know what does.