The Sufjan Claus...

Christmas is about excess. We eat too much, buy too much, and spend WAY too much time with people we feel oblidged to visit. Christmas is, if anything, a giant experiment that annually proves that there is in fact too much of a good thing.

If I were to find one person that could possibly represent this culture of excess, it would be Sufjan Stevens. Now wait! Don't hurl tomatos and rotten veggies at me! I love Sufjans as much as the next blogger (and the next, and next, and next) but really. The man is putting out a full album for each of the 50 United States. I've loved the first two albums, but in all honesty I can't see myself keeping interested in Sufjan's antics for however long it takes him to create the next 48. (At the rate he's cranking them out, I'll probably be dead by the time they're done)

Keeping with his excessive releases (I mean, this year we got ANOTHER CD of Illinoise material) he's putting out a FIVE (repeat it for emphasis FIVE) CD set of Christmas music. It collects the short EPs he's put together each year (except for 2004) for the last 6 years.

Now I like a good Christmas album probably a slight bit MORE than the next blogger. Christmas albums are typically hated, typically because they're slapped together and you get freaking SICK of them after December. But still, Megan and I run out and pick up an album each year to rock around our own little plastic Christmas tree. So when I heard Sufjan Stevens would be releasing his much-pirated Christmas material, I was overjoyed... UNTIL I FOUND OUT IT WAS A FIVE-CD SET!

I have to ask, Sufjan, why not do 12? I mean, you could make a full LP analyzing each of the 12 days of Christmas! (THAT WAS A JOKE! I DIDN'T MEAN IT! DON'T DO IT SUFJAN!!!!!!!!!)

For those of you thinking "HA! I already have them!" one of the CDs is new material for this Christmas. And of course, in the grand tradition of excessive christmas joy, it comes with stickers, booklets, and enough goodies to make it way too freaking expensive. Each CD is packaged individually as well, or so I'm told. Oh, and there's a total of THREE versions of O Come, O Come Emmannuel.

O come, O come, O COME ON SUFJAN! A music fan can only take so much! Can you look at yourself in the mirror knowing that your output could financially cripple a poor music fan!

I'm still teetering on whether in the end this is a good thing or a bad thing. My Christmas wish (aside from my two front teeth) is that Asthmatic Kitty will have the sense to release them individually as well, so we can pick and choose, or just by the one with the new material.

Anyway, for more details, peep out this Pitchfork news item or you can hear it straight from the asthmatic horse's mouth.

(I'll post a few of Sufjan's xmas tracks later tonight)