MUSIC

The Top 20 Saddest Christmas Songs

Gather round the Christmas tree and get ready to cry!

Phoebe Bridgers - Christmas Song (Official Audio)

Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, but sometimes you're not feeling the cheer.

Or maybe you just love sad music and want to get in the holiday spirit. Whatever your reason for listening to melancholy music, there are plenty of devastating Christmas songs to help you cozy up with a cup of spiked cider and the blues. From indie gems to old classics, are our favorites.

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Sufjan Stevens, Lowell Brams - Climb That Mountain [Official Audio]

Sufjan Stevens is constantly pushing musical and thematic boundaries, and now he's gone fully out into the boondocks (or maybe the far reaches of the stratosphere) with his new electronic-instrumental album, Aporia.

The album streamed live on March 23rd at 3PM, and it's a 21-track collection of glitchy, meditative sonic journeys that also feel like journeys through space and time.

Most of the album comes from Stevens' jam sessions with Lowell Brams, his stepfather and business partner. "You know how it is with jamming, ninety percent of it is absolutely horrible, but if you're just lucky enough, ten percent is magic," Stevens told Pitchfork. "I just kept pulling out these little magical moments."

Stevens said the record is mostly about his relationship with Brams. It "tells a bigger story of stewardship and mentorship. He's been there since I was five," he said. "This record is a synthesis of all of that history."

The album is almost all instrumental, but in terms of song titles, things get a little out there. Not all the song titles require a dictionary or a PhD in humanities ("Climb That Mountain" is pretty self-explanatory), but many of them are references to Ancient Greek philosophy.

The first track on the album, "Ousia," most likely takes its name from the eponymous Greek philosophical term. "Ousia" was used by Plato and Aristotle to describe the philosophical concepts of "essence" or "substance"—essentially the "stuff" that makes up all things. In Christian philosophy, the term refers to "divine essence" specifically, and since we know that Sufjan songs are always either gay or about god, there's a good chance this song might be an ode to some sort of divine being.

"Palinodes" refers to a kind of poem wherein the author retracts or disavows something stated in a previous poem. "Ataraxia" is a fundamental tenet of Pyrrhonism and Stoicism, meaning "equanimity" or "tranquility" or freedom from struggle. Many Pyrrhonists believe it can only be brought about by another process—"Eudaimonia," the name of the 20th song on the album, which is a state of ultimate happiness and purpose.

The album's title, Aporia, means doubt, uncertainty, or puzzlement. So perhaps the whole album is about Sufjan and Lowell vacillating between Ancient Greek philosophies, trying to find their purposes among life's murkiness. Or maybe it has another meaning unique to Sufjan's mind, something connected to fatherhood and his absent mother and ancient Greek philosophy's ever-present patriarchal shadow over human thought.

Until we find purpose or make peace with the lack of it, we can all languish in Aporia and let the music wash away our confusion.

MUSIC

Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams Haunt with "The Runaround"

Stevens and his stepfather, Brams, are releasing a collaborative album next month.

Sufjan Stevens, Lowell Brams - The Runaround [Official Video]

It's been five years since Sufjan Stevens' last full-length album, the hauntingly beautiful Carrie & Lowell.

The album's name refers to Stevens' mother, Carrie, and stepfather, Lowell Brams. Stevens and Brams have worked together for years, and next month, the pair are releasing their second album together, Aporia. They're teasing it with an industrial-tinged ambient track, "The Runaround."

On first pass, "The Runaround" sounds like a far cry from the simple folk that's made Stevens such a prominent figure. There might not be any of his standard acoustic guitar, but the metallic soundscapes show off an eerier side of Stevens. Although the song does lean heavily into atmospheric motifs, some gorgeous, more conventional melodies do poke through, as does Stevens' heavily-altered voice: "Holding the flame / Burning a megaphone / What are you waiting for? / An open door?" "The Runaround" sounds soothing, but bears a looming sense of unrest.

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CULTURE

This Haunts Me: Drake and Sufjan Stevens' Tumblr Romance

A love letter to Sufjan Stevens' and Drake's love.

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Aubrey Drake Graham and Sufjan Stevens are in love.

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Photo by: lauraa_gomeez / Unsplash

December is officially Sufjan Stevens Christmas Music Month.

If you weren't previously aware, Sufjan Stevens—the folk singer behind songs like "Chicago" and "Visions of Gideon"—has created a total of 100 Christmas songs, immortalized on two magnificent, multi-album compilations: 2006's Songs for Christmas and 2012's Silver and Gold.

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The somber, ambient-folk nuance of the album Carrie & Lowell earned a new gaggle of Sufjan Stevens fans in 2015.

Tracks like "Drawn To The Blood" and "No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross" found the singer processing his sexuality in light of religious and societal pressure and carried with them a solemn introspection. Then came Planetarium, his 2017 follow-up collaboration with James McAlister, Bryce Dessner, and Nico Muhly: an expansive, be it at times lethargic, odyssey of a project that retained none of Carrie & Lowell's signature angst. Steven's contribution to the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack recaptured the haunting aesthetic of his 2015 masterpiece with "Visions of Gideon," but his other two offerings, (one of which was an Age of Adz remaster) rang hollow, with "Mystery of Love" in particular caving under the weight of its cliche narrative. "The rhymes are too neat, the phrasing is too precious...and Stevens' coo is so honeyed, it's cloying," wrote Pitchforkof the song. By now, Carrie & Lowell feels almost like a distant memory, and it feels impossible for Sufjan Stevens to get close again.

In honor of pride month, Sufjan Stevens announced his return with two new songs, "Love Yourself" and "With My Whole Heart," both atmospheric and synth-infused in their own right, but far more grounded than his work on Planetarium. The latter is especially optimistic for a Stevens track, with the singer crafting it as a personal challenge "to write an upbeat and sincere love song without conflict, anxiety or self-deprecation." The track ultimately succeeds and is a welcome departure from the singer's usual, heavy-handed angst. "Love Yourself," which is allegedly based off of a "sketch" that Stevens wrote 20 years ago, is more of a slow-burn, and while the melody is enjoyable, the singer's opaque lyrics leave much to be desired: "Make a shelf, put all the things on, that you believe in," he sings.

Regardless, it is nice to hear the hushed echo of Sufjan Stevens again, and while the two new tracks may still not satisfy Carrie & Lowell fanatics, the tracks paint a clearer picture of who Sufjan Stevens is becoming: a fluid artist whose boundless emotional spectrum has led listeners to question everything from their own sexuality to humanity's place in the universe. A portion of the new EP's proceeds will benefit the Ali Forney Center and the Ruth Ellis Center, both of which fight to end homophobia and child abuse. Ultimately, these new tracks showcase Sufjan Stevens as an evergreen artist who's always believed that his art is part of a higher calling.