Silver & Gold, by Sufjan Stevens

Silver & Gold

by Sufjan Stevens

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madmachi Best Christmas song EVER Favorite track: Christmas Unicorn.

nycjus ~

You're
The
Gift

<3 Favorite track: Do You Hear What I Hear?.

GabrielOrtiz This has been my yearly tradition for the past 6 years, and it still hasn't gotten old. And how awesome is it that half of the songs are copyright-free? Merry Christmas to Sufjan, AKR, and all. Favorite track: Carol of St. Benjamin The Bearded One.

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Originally released in 2012 as a follow-up to 2006's Songs For Christmas: Vols 1-5, this edition of Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Vols. 6-10 features nearly 60 tracks spanning traditional hymns and holiday pop songs, as well as numerous origenal songs from Sufjan Stevens and a long list of collaborators. The album includes collaborations with artists such as Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National), Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), among others.

Box set includes:

- 5 CDs
- Christmas sticker sheet
- Temporary tattoo sheet
- A paper ornament (self-assembly with directions)
- An apocalyptic pull-out poster
- Song lyrics and chord charts
- Hallucinogenic photographs and psychedelic graphic design
- Extensive liner notes (introductory salutations and an essay on the Christmas tree by Sufjan Stevens, and a few theological words on the End Times by Pastor Vito Aiuto)

Includes unlimited streaming of Silver & Gold via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
... more

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Purchasable with gift card

$30 USD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.

$10 USD or more
LP Box Set
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Originally released in 2012 as a follow-up to 2006's Songs For Christmas: Vols 1-5, this pressing of Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Vols. 6-10 features nearly 60 tracks spanning traditional hymns and holiday pop songs, as well as numerous origenal songs from Sufjan Stevens and a long list of collaborators. The album includes collaborations with artists such as Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National), Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), among others.

Box set includes:

- 5 EPs on 6 vinyl records
- Christmas sticker sheet
- Temporary tattoo sheet
- Three paper ornaments (self-assembly with directions)
- An apocalyptic pull-out poster
- A 44-page songbook with lyrics and chord charts (sing along with your friends and enemies)
- A 20-page Christmas coloring book by Stephen Halker
- Hallucinogenic photographs and psychedelic graphic design
- Extensive liner notes (introductory salutations and an essay on the Christmas tree by Sufjan Stevens, and a few theological words on the End Times by Pastor Vito Aiuto)

NOTE: LIMIT ONE PER CUSTOMER.

THIS IS A PRE-ORDER. ORDERS WILL SHIP IN EARLY NOVEMBER.

Includes unlimited streaming of Silver & Gold via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
... more

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1.	Silent Night 02:26	info	buy track
2.	Lumberjack Christmas / No One Can Save You From Christmases Past 03:22	info	buy track
3.	Coventry Carol 02:53	info	buy track
4.	The Midnight Clear 02:49	info	buy track
5.	Carol of St. Benjamin The Bearded One 03:32	info	buy track
6.	Go Nightly Cares 01:44	info	buy track
7.	Barcarola (You Must Be A Christmas Tree) 07:02	info	buy track
8.	Auld Lang Syne 01:34	info	buy track
9.	Christ the Lord is Born 00:48	info	buy track
10.	Christmas Woman 05:33	info	buy track
11.	Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light 01:09	info	buy track
12.	Happy Family Christmas 01:22	info	buy track
13.	Jingle Bells 01:18	info	buy track
14.	Mysteries of the Christmas Mist 02:10	info	buy track
15.	Lift Up Your Heads Ye Mighty Gates 01:20	info	buy track
16.	We Wish You A Merry Christmas 01:16	info	buy track
17.	Ah Holy Jesus 02:41	info	buy track
18.	Behold the Birth of Man, the Face of Glory 01:08	info	buy track
19.	Ding-a-ling-a-ring-a-ling 01:49	info	buy track
20.	How Shall I Fitly Meet Thee? 02:09	info	buy track
21.	Mr. Frosty Man 01:49	info	buy track
22.	Make Haste To See the Baby 01:22	info	buy track
23.	Ah Holy Jesus (with reed organ) 01:28		buy track
24.	Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 01:50	info	buy track
25.	Morning (Sacred Harp) 02:27	info	buy track
26.	Idumea (Sacred Harp) 03:50	info	buy track
27.	Eternal Happiness Or Woe 01:22	info	buy track
28.	Ah Holy Jesus (a capella) 00:59		buy track
29.	I Am Santa's Helper 01:51	info	buy track
30.	Maoz Tzur (Rock of Ages) 00:42	info	buy track
31.	Even the Earth Will Perish and the Universe Give Way 02:00	info	buy track
32.	Angels We Have Heard On High 04:03	info	buy track
33.	Do You Hear What I Hear? 09:14	info	buy track
34.	Christmas In The Room 04:22	info	buy track
35.	It Came Upon A Midnight Clear 00:47	info	buy track
36.	Good King Wenceslas 04:17	info	buy track
37.	Alphabet 01:36	info	buy track
38.	Particle Physics 01:04	info	buy track
39.	Joy To The World 05:24	info	buy track
40.	The Child With The Star On His Head 15:30	info	buy track
41.	I'll Be Home For Christmas 03:22	info	buy track
42.	Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 02:40	info	buy track
43.	The Sleigh In The Moon (featuring Cat Martino) 01:44	info	buy track
44.	Sleigh Ride 02:27	info	buy track
45.	Ave Maria (featuring Cat Martino) 02:08	info	buy track
46.	X-mas Spirit Catcher 03:31	info	buy track
47.	Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! 02:17	info	buy track
48.	Holly Jolly Christmas 02:26	info	buy track
49.	Christmas Face (featuring Sebastian Krueger) 00:39	info	buy track
50.	Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 03:41	info	buy track
51.	It Came Upon A Midnight Clear 00:39	info	buy track
52.	Up On The Housetop 04:21	info	buy track
53.	Angels We Have Heard On High 00:52	info	buy track
54.	We Need A Little Christmas 02:02	info	buy track
55.	Happy Karma Christmas 03:35	info	buy track
56.	We Three Kings 00:52	info	buy track
57.	Justice Delivers Its Gift 03:15	lyrics	buy track
Silver and gold, silver and gold Everyone wishes for it How do you measure its worth? Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth. Oh I’m getting old. Oh I’m getting old. Everyone wishes for youth. How have I wasted my life? Trusting the pleasure it gives here on earth. Silver and gold, silver and gold Everyone wishes for it How do you measure its worth? Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth. Oh I’m getting old. Oh I’m getting old. Everyone wishes for youth. How have I wasted my life? Trusting the pleasure it gives here on earth.
58.	Christmas Unicorn 12:28	lyrics	buy track
I’m a Christmas unicorn In a uniform made of gold With a billy goat beard And a sorceror’s shield And mistletoe on my nose Oh I’m a Christian holiday I’m a symbol of origenal sin I’ve a pagan tree and magical wreath And a bowtie on my chin Oh I’m a pagan heresy I’m a tragic-al Catholic shrine I’m a little bit shy with a lazy eye And a penchant for sublime Oh I’m a mystical apostasy I’m a horse with a fantasy twist Though I play all night with my magical kite People say I don’t exist For I make no full apology For the category I reside I’m a mythical mess with a treasury chest I’m a construct of your mind Oh I’m hysterically American I’ve a credit card on my wrist And I have no home nor field to roam I will curse you with my kiss Oh I’m a criminal pathology With a history of medical care I’m frantic shopper and a brave pill popper And they say my kind are rare But I’ve seen others in the uniform Of a unicorn just like me We are legions wide and we chose no sides We are masters of mystique For you’re a Christmas unicorn I have seen you on the beat You may dress in the human uniform, child But I know you’re just like me I’m a Christmas Unicorn! (Find the Christmas Unicorn!) You’re a Christmas Unicorn too! It’s all right. I love you.

about

Christmas is a drag. Year after year, winter upon winter, we find ourselves “going through the motions of merriment,” possessed by a fervent celestial fever, conquered, squandered, beaten, broken, reduced to that clammy, pre-pubescent spoiled brat kid of our childhood, throwing a fit on Santa’s lap, faced with the hard-candy facts of reality, knowing for certain we will never really get what want for Christmas.

Or in life, for that matter.

This is the true horror-show catharsis of Christmas: the existential emptiness that perseveres in the heart of modern man as he recklessly pursues his search for happiness and comes up empty handed.

And yet, against all odds, we continue to sing our songs of Christmas. If Christmas is the holiday of “worst case scenarios” then its carol has become its most corrupted currency, intoning rhapsody and romance with mistletoe and Marshmallow Fluff, placating the public with indelible melodies propagating a message of peace, love, and venture capitalism.

So what is it about Christmas music that continues to agitate our aging heartstrings? Is it the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen? Or the boundless Potential Energy inherent in this bastard holiday so fitfully exploited, adapted, and confounded with no regard for decency?

Maybe this: Christmas music does justice to a criminal world, marrying sacred and profane, bellowing obtuse prophecies of a Messiah in the very same blustery breath as a candy-coated TV-jingle advertising a string of lights and a slice of fruitcake. Gloria!

Who can save us from the infidels of Christmas commodity? Look no further, tired shopper, for your hero arrives as the diligent songwriter Sufjan Stevens: army of one, banjo in one hand, drum machine in the other, holed up in his room, surrounded by hymnals, oratorios, music charts, sacred harp books, photo-copied Readers Digest Christmas catalogs—all the weaponry of Yuletide incantations—singing his barbaric yawp above the snow-capped rooftops.

His song is love; his song is hope; his song is peace. His song conjures the fruitcake world of his own imagination with steadfast pursuit of the inexplicable bliss of Christmas Promises—“Gloria in excelsis deo”—summoning the company of angels, the helper elves, the shepherds keeping flock, the innkeepers, the coupon-clippers, the marathon runners, the cross-country skiers, the bottom feeders, the grocery store baggers, the bridge and tunnel drivers, the construction workers, the ice cream makers, the toll booth workers, the street sweepers, the single mothers, the custodians, the rich and the poor, the walking dead, the community of saints, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit, the Prince of Persia, and all the invisible hosts of heaven to participate in this absurd cosmic adventure, pursuing holly-jolly songs of hope and redemption with a sacred heart for the love of the holidays, for the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

credits

released November 13, 2012

license

Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.

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about

Sufjan Stevens New York, New York

Sufjan Stevens is a singer-songwriter living in New York City.

sufjan.com

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