Sufjan StevensThe Globe and Mail
I Do Not Care for the Winter Sun Beach House (available here)
The Baltimore dream-pop band's new seasonal single may be just the thing for when, stuffed with turkey and trimmings, you sit and stare at the burning Yule log. Singer Victoria Legrand (niece of Michel) drags her husky lullaby voice over the tune's slow repetitive melody, pausing for a lick of Hawaiian guitar - an allusion, perhaps, to Bing Crosby's Hawaiian Xmas single of long ago.
That Was the Worst Christmas Ever Sufjan Stevens (available here)
The sweet and the bitter come together in this delicate banjo waltz by Sufjan Stevens, which begins with cozy snow and sled imagery, continues through a scene of violent holiday trauma, then glides into a tender recollection of what Christmas is supposed to mean.
Puer Natus Est Olivier Messiaen (available here)
The great modernist French composer improvises at a church organ on the ancient Gregorian chant, in an excerpt from a documentary film. It's a mind-blowing display of spontaneous creation, and a timely reminder of Messiaen's muscular, colouristic engagement with the oldest traditions of his faith.
Christmas Ditty David Wall (written for The Globe and Mail)
Okay, we're chest-thumping a bit here, since The Globe commissioned this tune for last Saturday's paper. But Toronto songwriter David Wall's song is dangerously catchy, and a very witty take on Christmas and its trappings from a Jewish point of view. Tania Gill is on the piano.