Silver & Gold

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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - James Christopher Monger
Silver & Gold, the 2012 follow-up to 2006's Songs for Christmas, offers up another five-EP set of schizophrenic seasonal cheer from one of indie pop's most prolific and maddeningly detail-oriented overachievers. Housed in an incredibly colorful box that yields volumes 6-10 of the series, they are presented in meticulously decorated, single cardboard sleeves that feel like part of a graphic design thesis, and are accompanied by an 80-page booklet filled with lyrics, chord charts, childhood photos, and personal and production liner notes peppered with rainbow headers, temporary tattoos that include a skeleton Santa, a Manga unicorn and an emo-Jesus, and a ...
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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - James Christopher Monger
Silver & Gold, the 2012 follow-up to 2006's Songs for Christmas, offers up another five-EP set of schizophrenic seasonal cheer from one of indie pop's most prolific and maddeningly detail-oriented overachievers. Housed in an incredibly colorful box that yields volumes 6-10 of the series, they are presented in meticulously decorated, single cardboard sleeves that feel like part of a graphic design thesis, and are accompanied by an 80-page booklet filled with lyrics, chord charts, childhood photos, and personal and production liner notes peppered with rainbow headers, temporary tattoos that include a skeleton Santa, a Manga unicorn and an emo-Jesus, and a construct-it-yourself holiday ornament (comic book-style instructions are provided). Stylistically, it's a lot to take in which, not surprisingly, applies to the music as well. For the most part, Silver & Gold stays true to Stevens' predilection for kitchen sink, lo-fi chamber pop, but he plays fast and loose with the formula, offering up nervy, post-rock oddities like "Mr. Frosty Man" and "X-Spirit Catcher," progressive folk epics in "The Boy with the Star on his Head" and "Christmas Unicorn," and an Age of Adz-inspired rendition of yuletide favorite "Alphabet Street," by Prince in lieu of just standards. That's not to say that the Christmas spirit has been subverted, as Stevens provides plenty of traditional holiday cheer ("Joy to the World," "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Silent Night," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (which clocks in at 40 seconds and is performed only on recorders), and his band of disparate merry makers, who include Aaron and Bryce Dessner (the National), Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), and assorted members of the Castanets and the Danielson Famile, among others, who help to keep things lively and spontaneous, resulting in an audio experience that's akin to pressing your ear against the door of a rehearsal room in a church basement, or watching a Wes Anderson movie while listening to A Charlie Brown Christmas.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 11/13/2012
  • Label: Asthmatic Kitty
  • UPC: 656605610023
  • Catalog Number: 56100
  • Sales rank: 43,871

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1 Silent Night (2:26)
  2. 2 Lumberjack Christmas/No One Can Save You from Christmases Past (3:22)
  3. 3 Coventry Carol - Marla Hansen (2:53)
  4. 4 The Midnight Clear (2:49)
  5. 5 Carol of St. Benjamin the Bearded One (3:32)
  6. 6 Go Nightly Cares (1:44)
  7. 7 Barcarola (You Must Be a Christmas Tree) (7:02)
  8. 8 Auld Lang Syne (1:34)
Disc 2
  1. 1 Christ the Lord Is Born (0:48)
  2. 2 Christmas Woman (5:33)
  3. 3 Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light (1:09)
  4. 4 Happy Family Christmas (1:22)
  5. 5 Jingle Bells (1:18)
  6. 6 Mysteries of the Christmas Mist (2:10)
  7. 7 Lift Up Your Heads Ye Mighty Gates (1:20)
  8. 8 We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1:16)
  9. 9 Ah Holy Jesus (2:41)
  10. 10 Behold! The Birth of Man, the Face of Glory (1:08)
  11. 11 Ding-a-Ling-a-Ring-a-Ling (1:49)
  12. 12 How Shall I Fitly Greet Thee? (2:09)
  13. 13 Mr. Frosty Man (1:49)
  14. 14 Make Haste to See the Baby (1:22)
  15. 15 Ah Holy Jesus (1:28)
  16. 16 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (1:50)
  17. 17 Morning (2:27)
  18. 18 Idumea (3:50)
  19. 19 Eternal Happiness or Woe (1:22)
  20. 20 Ah Holy Jesus (0:59)
  21. 21 I Am Santa's Helper (1:51)
  22. 22 "Maoz Tzur" (0:42)
  23. 23 Even the Earth Will Perish and the Universe Give Way (2:00)
Disc 3
  1. 1 Angels We Have Heard on High (4:03)
  2. 2 Do You Hear What I Hear (9:14)
  3. 3 Christmas in the Room (4:22)
  4. 4 It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (0:47)
  5. 5 Good King Wenceslas (4:17)
  6. 6 Alphabet St. (1:36)
  7. 7 Particle Physics (1:04)
  8. 8 Joy to the World (5:24)
  9. 9 The Child with the Star on His Head (15:30)
Disc 4
  1. 1 I'll Be Home for Christmas (3:22)
  2. 2 Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (2:40)
  3. 3 The Sleigh in the Moon - Cat Martino (1:44)
  4. 4 Sleigh Ride (2:27)
  5. 5 Ave Maria - Cat Martino (2:08)
  6. 6 X-Spirit Catcher (3:31)
  7. 7 Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (2:17)
  8. 8 A Holly Jolly Christmas (2:26)
  9. 9 Christmas Face (0:39)
Disc 5
  1. 1 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (3:41)
  2. 2 It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (0:39)
  3. 3 Up on the Housetop - Vesper Stamper (4:21)
  4. 4 Angels We Have Heard on High (0:52)
  5. 5 We Need a Little Christmas (2:02)
  6. 6 Happy Karma Christmas (3:35)
  7. 7 We Three Kings (0:52)
  8. 8 Justice Delivers Its Death (3:15)
  9. 9 Christmas Unicorn (12:28)
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
Sufjan Stevens Primary Artist
Daniel Smith Drums, Vocals, Wood Flute
Rosie Thomas Choir, Chorus
Casey Foubert Bass Guitar
Brian Wolfe Percussion, Drums
James McAlister Percussion, Drums
Bryce Dessner Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Electric Guitar, Ukulele, Vocals, Classical Guitar
Aaron Dessner Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals, Upright Bass
Richard Reed Parry Vocals, Upright Bass
Raymond Raposa Vocals
Olivier Manchon Violin
Cat Martino Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Choir, Chorus, Omnichord
Sayard Egan Vocals
C.J. Camerieri Trumpet
Alex Sopp Flute, Vocals, Bells
Marla Hansen Viola, Vocals
Nathan Lithgow Percussion, Drums, Bass Guitar, Vocals
Gabriel Kahane Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Reed Organ
Ida Smith Marimbas, Vocals
Sebastian Krueger Acoustic Guitar, Clarinet, Percussion, Autoharp, Electric Guitar, Vocals
Vesper Stamper Voices, Choir, Chorus
Lily Smith Violin, Vocals
Elin Smith Vocals
Clara Klaus Vocals
Sonya Hofer Choir, Chorus
Technical Credits
John Dowland Composer
Leos Janácek Composer
Felix Mendelssohn Composer
Franz Schubert Composer
Leroy Anderson Composer, Lyricist
Prince Composer, Lyricist
Buck Ram Composer, Lyricist
Jerry Herman Composer, Lyricist
Johannes Crüger Composer
Sammy Cahn Composer, Lyricist
J. Fred Coots Composer, Lyricist
Kim Gannon Composer, Lyricist
Haven Gillespie Composer, Lyricist
Walter Kent Composer, Lyricist
Johnny Marks Composer, Lyricist
Hugh Martin Composer, Lyricist
Mitchell Parish Composer, Lyricist
Jule Styne Composer, Lyricist
Isaac Watts Composer, Lyricist
Lowell Mason Composer
Ralph Blane Composer, Lyricist
Catherine Winkworth translation
Richard Storrs Willis Composer
Joseph Mohr Composer, Lyricist
Noel Regney Composer
Johann Schop Composer
Gloria Shayne Composer
John Mason Neale Composer, Lyricist
Devin Greenwood Drum Engineering, Percussion Engineer, Piano Engineer
Traditional Composer
Sufjan Stevens Arranger, Composer, Lyricist, Producer, Engineer, Liner Notes, Instrumentation
Casey Foubert Guitar Engineer
John Henry Hopkins Jr. Composer
Bryce Dessner Composer
Aaron Dessner Composer
Robert Burns Composer, Lyricist
Cat Martino Composer
David Stith Engineer
Alex Sopp Whistle
John Freeman Young English Translations
John McCaig Mastering
Georg Weissel Composer, Lyricist
Johann Heermann Composer, Lyricist
Ananias Davisson Composer
Edmund Sears Composer, Lyricist
Sebastian Krueger Composer, Lyricist
Thomas Williams Composer
Charles Wesley Composer, Lyricist
Benjamin Hanby Composer, Lyricist
J.S. Bach Composer
James Lord Pierpont Composer, Lyricist
Franz Xaver Gruber Composer
Thomas Vito Aiuto Liner Notes
Amos Pilsbury Composer
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