As Christmas approaches, I feel compelled to post a cheery holiday song. But here’s the thing: most of those songs suck big time. And most times, you aren’t necessarily in a cheery Christmas mood.

One of my goals this Christmas was to find some “Christmas” music that works for any season. And I may have found it in the most unlikely of places.

In the past few months, I’ve done a complete 180 on Sufjan Stevens. While I enjoyed a few songs on Illinois and The Avalanche, I thought most of it was overblown twee crap (I’ll admit: I absolutely hate the flute). Then in October, I went to see Sufjan play live at Zellerbach, which just reinforced why I started to dislike him in the first place.

When he released a 5-disc Christmas box set on November 21 for a whooping $15, I didn’t care. A few weeks later, I realized that Sufjan had released a 5-disc box set for $15. I picked it up at the local record shop and started listening to it almost exclusively, hoping it would help fill me with the Christmas spirit, which most times is brutally killed by finals.

With over 40 tracks, the Sufjan box set can be a little overwhelming. But that’s where I come in: the best track by FAR is a song called “Sister Winter.” It’s definitely not a cheery Christmas track, which is why I like it. It’s made me do a 135 on Sufjan. I say 135 because I only selectively like his music.

Regardless, “Sister Winter” is a fantastic song and I hope you enjoy it.

[mp3] Sufjan Stevens :: Sister Winter

PS – For those of you with lots of free time now that winter break has started, Pitchfork just posted its Top 100 Tracks of 2006 list (complete with mp3’s or videos of every song). While there are a lot of great tracks on the list, the #1 song destroys what little respect I had for Pitchfork. I think you’ll understand why…