Halloween may be barely behind us but Sufjan Stevens is already in the holiday spirit. His forthcoming compilation Worst Christmas Ever! compiles a mix of Yuletide standards done up Stevens style (“Angels We Have Heard on High (Christmas Infinity Voyage Version)”) and originals from his extensive holiday catalog. Among them is a newly unearthed vault track, “On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better),” which you can now listen to below. Worst Christmas Ever! is out November 6 via Asthmatic Kitty.
Stevens’ love for Christmas is well-documented; according to a statement, he has written and recorded more than 100 Christmas songs since 2001. Worst Christmas Ever! features a number of tracks that previously appeared on his Songs for Christmas, Vols. 1-5 and the 2012 box set Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Vols. 6-10. Collaborators across the record include the National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, Cat Martino, Gabriel Kahane, and Casey Foubert.
Although Stevens hasn’t debuted a new album since 2023’s Javelin, he has remained active on the release front. In 2024, he shared a 20th anniversary reissue of Seven Swans. Last year, he celebrated a decade of Carrie & Lowell with its own reissue, and released the song “Heaven Thunder” with Mina Tindle. In September, Stevens made a surprise appearance at Meg Lui’s show in Kingston, New York, marking his first public musical performance in over eight years, following a 2023 diagnosis with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves.
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