Sufjan Stevens: Worst Christmas Ever (LP)

We know it's still too early to be talking about Christmas, but Sufjan Stevens' "Worst Christmas Ever!" is coming soon, and we want to tell you all about it. For the first time, Sufjan Stevens has compiled his finest Christmas recordings into a compact “best-of” collection. “Worst Christmas Ever!” is a single LP compiled from Sufjan Stevens’ extensive Christmas repertoire, bringing together the box sets “Songs For Christmas” and “Silver & Gold” into one definitive collection. The album brings together favorites selected from more than a hundred Christmas recordings, including the new original song “On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better)”—Sufjan’s first new Christmas song in nearly fifteen years. It all began in 2001, when Sufjan set out to put together a Christmas gift for friends and family, and ended up with a seven-song recording he called “Noel, Vol. 1.” Every few years at Christmas, he recorded another album, always in the same way: one week in December, mostly at home, simply involving whoever happened to be there—which led to collaborations with Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National, Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire, Cat Martino, Gabriel Kahane, and members of Danielson. Asthmatic Kitty released the first five volumes as a set in 2006 and the next five in 2012.