7/10

Asthmatic Kitty | 13.11.12

Wondered what the super-prolific Sufjan Stevens was doing on his downtime from recording the densely orchestrated opuses The Age of Adz and All Delighted People? Recording five CDs of Christmas music, of course.

How easy then, it would be to discard this as another gimmicky Christmas album, fated to be heard just the once as a novel break from the regular festive classics. It really shouldnÔÇÖt be surprising that this album is at times beautifully written, given StevensÔÇÖ back catalogue. Rather inevitably for an album that lasts just shy of three hours, this is not always the case. Perhaps like the holiday itself, Silver & Gold constantly straddles the fine line of being incredibly fun and depressingly lame.┬á Gloria and I Am SantaÔÇÖs Helper (CDs 1 and 2) are a positive introduction to┬á the album, seemingly aware of how ridiculous it is and being quite fun as a result. However, an hour into this Christmas extravaganza, things are become increasingly tedious as dull renditions of carols begin to dominate.

While there are several great moments on this album, it is bewildering that Stevens felt compelled to record even more festive music, but it is nonetheless remarkable that he is capable of producing such a large output of music when it is often so wonderfully detailed. Reduce the five CDs to two and youÔÇÖll be left with a great album, let alone a great Christmas album.

Kit Denison