It's songs have more form and it's more consistent. It doesn't have any killer songs like John Wayne Gacy Jr. or Casimir Pulaski Day but, as a whole, I enjoy it more.

Argue with me.

Eh, Illinois was more consistent I thought. There were a few losers toward the end, but overall it is just better than Avalanche. I really like Pittsfield off Avalanche and another earlier track that I forget its name, but bottom line Illinois is stronger

Its songs have more form? There are 5 or 6 songs that sound like various windchimes.

Illinois has just as many pointless tracks. More. But I meant excluding the wind chimey stuff. I delete those songs.
It may just be that songs like Springfield and Mistress appeal to me more because they don't get as wild and as much like Charlie Brown Christmas muzak as songs like Chicago and Come On! Feel the Illinoise do. I stand by my argument.

There's probably a better Sufjan thread to post this, but this was the first one I saw.

I'm not sure if other sources have already posted this, but Paste reports:

Sufjan Stevens To Release Christmas Box Set

Looks like folk pop dreamboat Sufjan Stevens has gotten over the 50 states project. Now he’s onto something even more traditional: Christmas.

Stevens is releasing a box set titled Songs for Christmas Nov. 21 with five individually packed Christmas EPs that he began recording in 2001. Included in the box set are various novelty items such as Christmas stickers, extensive liner notes and short stories by Stevens and a Christmas songbook with lyric sheets.

The five-disc tracklist:
Noel: Songs for Christmas, Vol. I (recorded December 2001)
1. Silent Night
2. O Come O Come Emmanuel
3. We’re Goin’ To the Country! *
4. Lo How A Rose E’er Blooming
5. It’s Christmas! Let’s Be Glad! *
6. Holy Holy, etc.
7. Amazing Grace


Hark!: Songs for Christmas, Vol. II (recorded December 2002)
1. Angels We Have Heard on High
2. Put the Lights on the Tree *
3. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
4. I Saw Three Ships
5. Only at Christmas Time *
6. Once in Royal David’s City
7. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!
8. What Child Is This Anyway?
9. Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella


Ding! Dong!: Songs for Christmas, Vol. III (recorded December 2003)
1. O Come, O Come Emmanuel
2. Come on! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance! *
3. We Three Kings
4. O Holy Night
5. That Was the Worst Christmas Ever! *
6. Ding! Dong! *
7. All the King’s Horns *
8. The Friendly Beasts


Joy: Songs for Christmas, Vol. IV (recorded December 2005)
1. The Little Drummer Boy
2. Away In A Manger 3. Hey Guys! It’s Christmas Time! *
4. The First Noel 5. Did I Make You Cry On Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved It!) *
6. The Incarnation *
7. Joy To The World


Peace: Songs for Christmas, Vol. V (recorded June 2006)
1. Once in Royal David’s City
2. Get Behind Me, Santa! *
3. Jingle Bells
4. Christmas in July *
5. Lo! How A Rose E’er Blooming
6. Jupiter Winter *
7. Sister Winter *
8. O Come O Come Emmanuel
9. Star of Wonder *
10. Holy, Holy, Holy
11. The Winter Solstice *


* denotes original songs by Sufjan Stevens © 2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP

Tinymixtapes had a story about the Sufjan Christmas stuff a couple days ago, but I thought they might've been joking about the last 2 volumes. You can never tell with them.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
Tinymixtapes had a story about the Sufjan Christmas stuff a couple days ago, but I thought they might've been joking about the last 2 volumes. You can never tell with them.

True dat! I still look at the TMT reviews, but I've come to get so annoyed with the allegedly funny news bits, I can barely read them.

Oh god. Sufjan is so weird. I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy this. I love him but I'm not sure I love that he loves Jesus so much. I'm ambivalent.

What? I love a few songs off of The Avalanche - but I just can't sit through the whole thing. Illinois, on the other hand, is epic and fantastic and as close to flawlessly-executed as any album's come in a long time.

The Avalanche is, like, nowhere close, sorry.

And I've heard some of that Christmas stuff already, and regardless of your beliefs or whatever, it's really good. I've never let an album that bashes Christianity (or organized religion in general) bother me to the point where I don't enjoy it, and I may be wrong, but I don't see any reason it shouldn't work both ways.

Tov, Mazel.

quote:

I love him but I'm not sure I love that he loves Jesus so much. I'm ambivalent.

That's a pretty Christian head-somersault. ie - I love the man, but I don't love his beliefs (I've heard several Christians take a similar route with regards to the largely heathen populace).

I say:
If the music's good, nothing else should matter. As long as he isn't trying to sell me his religion, I have no problems whether he be Gnostic, Jewish or Wicca.

Originally posted by vitunkrapula:

quote:

I say:
If the music's good, nothing else should matter. As long as he isn't trying to sell me his religion, I have no problems whether he be Gnostic, Jewish or Wicca.

Touche. I know. You're right. I don't mind it at all when it's more subtly integrated into the songs but when it leads him to making 5 disc Christmas box sets...I'm just not sure it's a good controlling element to have anymore, not that he thinks of his faith as only complimenting his art.

I'm not sure if you guys have noticed, but I'm sure that there are gazillions of members here who celebrate Christmas, but certainly not for any religious reasons.

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
I'm not sure if you guys have noticed, but I'm sure that there are gazillions of members here who celebrate Christmas, but certainly not for any religious reasons.

Ok? Irrelevant.

quote:

Originally posted by thetreesgetwheeledaway:

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
I'm not sure if you guys have noticed, but I'm sure that there are gazillions of members here who celebrate Christmas, but certainly not for any religious reasons.

Ok? Irrelevant.

He means you can celebrate Christmas without celebrating Jesus; why can't you celebrate Sufjan the same way?

quote:

He means you can celebrate Christmas without celebrating Jesus; why can't you celebrate Sufjan the same way?

Ok. Yes. I still don't see much value in Sufjan covering "Silent Night" etc. It's been done and then it's been done some more. Bright Eyes did it and I didn't love it. If Sufjan really reinvented the songs I would feel differently about it. I love Sufjan's production and sound, but I'm mostly interested in his original lyrics and melodies.

If you really want to hear him coming up with new stuff, why are you so jazzed about a record with THREE versions of the same song?

Seriously, though, I never mind hearing Christmas songs redone, even if the versions sound fairly traditional. I love those songs. Unless you brutalize them, they're gonna be good.

My previous post aside, I think sufjan is getting WAY out of hand with the volume of stuff he's putting out. I don't care how good it is - the world does NOT really need 5 more discs of Christmas music. Something more like an EP, I might be interested in. But there are too many people making amazing music for me to waste 3 hours of my time listening to that, let alone buying it.

I'd be surprised if the 5 discs amount to much more than 2 hours. The previous Xmas EPs were pretty short. I'd bet he could fit all of this stuff onto two discs, but he wants to make the package part of the deal. I can get with that.

quote:

Originally posted by vitunkrapula:
My previous post aside, I think sufjan is getting WAY out of hand with the volume of stuff he's putting out. I don't care how good it is - the world does NOT really need 5 more discs of Christmas music. Something more like an EP, I might be interested in. But there are too many people making amazing music for me to waste 3 hours of my time listening to that, let alone buying it.

Yeah. Sorry about my previous remarks. This is really what I'm getting at. I'm not interested in volume. I would much rather hear ten great songs from him than a lot of sprawling 20 song albums.

Back to the original topic. I agree, overall and as a whole, the Avalanche is a more satisfying listen than Illinois. Yes, Illinois has the best individual songs, but it also has the worst ones. When you put on an album fom start to finish, I find the Avalanche flows very nicely.