SOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS and FRIENDS present Gloria songs for Christmas Vol. 6 (2006).
I was planning to write about Sufjan Steven’s first collection of Christmas albums, but I had forgotten that I had already done so back in 2009 [Vol 1 here; Vol 2 here; Vol 3 here; Vol 4 here and Vol 5 here.]
The next five volumes (from 2006-2010) came out in 2012. This collection bucks the rather traditional tradition he had established with the earlier volumes. Indeed, as the discs progress, they get more and more unusual.
But this first disc is quite traditional sounding. It has 8 songs and is about thirty minutes long.
“Silent Night” is very pretty with gentle acoustic guitars and lots of backing vocalists. The solo is kind of a singing saw I think—a little odd, but neat.
“Lumberjack Christmas/No One Can Save You from Christmases Past” is filled with fiddles and is quite sweet (with a very familiar melody (and ho ho hos).
“Coventry Carol” I love the introductory melody of this song, it’s so pretty. The voices feature multiple harmonies; it’s quite lovely.
“The Midnight Clear” despite the title and first line, this is not “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” but a song inspired by that one. This is a very pretty song with a complex melody and lots of filigree in the instrumentation.
“Carol of St. Benjamin the Bearded One” I love this instrumental opening (about 90 seconds) which plays with a twist on “Hark Hear the Bells” and then plays some different instrumental sections but always returning to that Hark section. It’s very cool. When the vocals come in it mellows out quite a bit and is still very pretty.
“Go Nightly Cares” has a very Elizabethan feel to it. It’s a lovely 15th century instrumental.
“Barcarola (You Must Be A Christmas Tree)” is 7 minutes long. It begins slow but gets bigger and bigger with a section from Do You Hear What I Hear (the “following yonder star” melody)
“Auld Lang Syne” is a very pretty version on acoustic instruments with lots of singers. It’s a nice way to end the EP.
[READ: December 5, 2014] Locke & Key 1
I heard about this graphic novel series when Joe Hill was on Seth Meyers’ show. I didn’t really know too much about his writing style but I knew he wasn’t someone I was anxious to read (even if his book Heart Shaped Box must have something to do with the Nirvana song, right?).
But Seth made this graphic novel series sound really compelling, so I decided to check them out. There are six collections in the series and they are all available now.
The first collection is called Welcome to Lovecraft and it sets the story in motion pretty much from the get go. As the book opens we see two creepy looking youths harassing a pretty woman. We see that they have killed at least two people, and things don’t look good for the lady.
Then we cut to some kids. An older boy, Tyler; a young teen girl Kinsey (with dreadlocks and piercings) and a little boy. Bode. They are all complaining about how much they hate living where they are.
Jump cut to a funeral with a bright red urn and Tyler looking down at it. (more…)
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Back in January, Guster postponed their Philadelphia concert because they were going to be on Late Night with Seth Myers. They rescheduled it for mid-March and decided that it would be a 20th Anniversary celebration of their 1999 album Lost and Gone Forever. So although the date change sucked at the time, the new show promised to be freakin amazing.
