MOG

If you're like me, the last few months of non-stop popular Christmas music is like a slow methodical torture...every song another drip to the forehead...that's only ever broken up by moments of pure agony (McCartneys "wonderful christmastime", Band Aid's "do they know it's christmas", anyone singing along to the "Hanukkah Song"). It makes me feel like a scrooge...which is unfortunate cause really, I do enjoy Christmas and Christmastime.

So thank the Christmas gods (wait..i guess that would be...um...christ...) for Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmastime. If you're on Mog, this is probably old news, but this collection of obscure christmas hymns, earnest spirituals, and even a few original compositions is truly a christmas miracle -- 5 cd's of christmas music you actually WANT to listen to again and again. Every time a Manheim Steamroller song comes on, an angel loses its wings. Sufjan's working to give em back.

Stevens may be the king of precious balladry (for better or worse), but here he has taken a coveted postion among the Whos, Herbie the elf, and of course Earnest (god rest his soul), as a veritable savior of Christmas.