Admittedly, it may feel extremely early to begin discussing Christmas tracks, yet this season has been definitively kickstarted by Sufjan Stevens’s first new Christmas song in nearly 15 years: ‘On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better)’.The single arrives ahead of a wider collection of his holiday songs, with the full album slated for release on 6 November. As someone who firmly believes that Christmas music is only acceptable from 1 December, I find it hard to apply that same strict logic to the melodic, melancholic lamenting of Sufjan Stevens.
Stevens delivers a masterclass in embracing the melancholic undertones of the festive season, finding a new way to isolate the inherent blues of the December cold within this track. In a press release, the singer describes how the season of giving is made “better by the giving and receiving of forgiveness,” an idea proposed straight from the opening line: “On this Christmas I ask forgiveness.” Stevens’s unforgettable lyricism returns in this single, reflecting on forgiveness and reckoning with the past with stark vulnerability. The musician creates an intimate connection between the lyrics and the listener, as his confessional tone resembles a prayer offering a Christmas apology.
The nostalgic, otherworldly synth that accompanies Stevens’s reverberating vocals creates a twinkly yet distorted sound that mirrors a choir. This collection of distorted voices helps craft a deep heartache at the centre of the song. In this dreamlike track, Stevens rejects pop-driven festive clichés and instead paints a solemn image of Christmas.
Not everyone’s Christmases are picture-perfect. Painful memories and complicated familial ties can make the season hard to reckon with, but Sufjan Stevens offers a comforting ode in his new single, proposing a quiet hope to hold us in the cold of winter.
“Stevens performing at the Pabst Theater” by Joe Lencioni is licensed under “CC BY 2.0“
