Ben Folds is keen to soundtrack your silly season this year, announcing his first ever Christmas album. Dubbed Sleigher, the 10-track collection will be released on Friday, 25th October.
The announcement comes peppered with two fresh festive cuts. First, we have ‘The Christmas Song’, one of three reimagined Chrissy classics on the record (a cover of the Mel Torme and Robert Wells’ original). The second is a duet with actress and songwriter Lindsey Kraft dubbed ‘We Could Have This’, which is among seven original festive Folds originals. However, the artist has assured fans that this isn’t your standard cheesy Christmas record, but rather a Ben Folds record that just happens to be set at Christmas time.
Ben Folds – ‘The Christmas Song’
Sleigher promises to examine the passage of time through the lens of Christmas, reflecting on memory, loss, and longing as it explores the variety of ways the yuletide season marks chapters of our lives.
“Christmas is constant,” Folds says in a press statement. “Allowing you to take stock of what’s different, to understand who you are and all the ways you’ve grown and changed.”
He continues: “There’s something about Christmas that really pushes you to ask, ‘Who am I now? How did I get here?’ You can look back on Christmases from your childhood and see the progression, or you can zoom out and look back at Christmas songs from the ‘30s and ‘40s and ‘50s and see we’ve evolved socially and culturally. Having that consistent framework is really illuminating. I love those holiday classics that are totally broad and timeless, but I’ve only ever been able to be myself, and I realized the most generous thing I could do with this album was write the best songs I could, no matter where that took me. Anything else just wouldn’t ring true.”
You can listen to Folds’ version of ‘The Christmas Song’ up above, or pre-order Sleigher here.
Further Reading
Paul Kelly Releases New Song ‘Christmas’ Alongside Nostalgic Video
Ben Folds: 10 Essential Tracks
Watch Billie Eilish Perform a Solo Piano Cover of Ben Folds’ ‘Still’
