GutterPutter

This is just going to be a relatively short piece, but it’s one that I think is worth raising up for Christmas Day given that it’s, by all accounts, a damn good song. Recently, I’ve been listening to a bit less Porgues, a bit less Frightened Rabbits, and a whole lot more Sufjan Stevens. A fact that wouldn’t be interesting by itself had it not been accompanied by the strength of what might be one of the very best festive songs to not have seen radio time – ‘Sister Winter’. What was initially set to be one of the many, many tracks hidden within the 2006 compilation album, Songs for Christmas, ends up standing out as a triumphant break from depression and a warm embrace for friendship.

Initially starting as a piano ballad with a handful of violin and electric guitar notes, the main purpose is to highlight a downtrodden state of mood. There was a pleading made on whether it is possible to be fully pleased. “Oh my friends, I’ve begun to worry, right,” goes Stevens for the first verse, “Where I should be grateful, I should be satisfied.” As the music begins to build up with more layered piano notes and the guitar riff becomes more pronounced, mournings of a foregone romance and apologies continue to rack up. That all culminates into blossoming horns and riveting drums that caps off an idealistic outro – “To wish you a happy Christmas!”

In thinking about the song, it might be tempting to compare it to the bittersweet realism of the Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’ or George Michael’s ‘December Song’. Outside of the basic premise of highlighting the more morose aspects of the festive season, it doesn’t exactly match up with the wider context of a personal context that is mental health. While the Pogues deal with the collapsing relationship and George Michael focuses on the fleeting loss of innocence, Stevens opts to embrace how the event isn’t enough to dispel depression. There are notable binary oppositions set within the song lyrics with the narrator/Stevens’s heart and his friends alongside the titular “Sister Winter” and the past summer which hammers home the climax of the greeting. It sought to emphasise the importance of relationships as a long-term remedy in soothing away the feeling. 

‘Sister Winter’ is a very important song not so much for its influence but rather for being a kind of Christmas song that sets its theme as a launchpad towards the commonality of camaraderie. It doesn’t obsess over presents or the lights or the constant need of jolliness. Instead, much of the subtext that makes the song emotionally impactful can be attributed to Stevens’s Christian faith and his outside-the-box outlook on songwriting as shown on his attempted 50 states album project and on A Beginner’s Mind. It wins over the hearts of many fans because it feels like an earnest evaluation of the event as a sole event for gathering. In many other songs like ‘That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!’, the Christian subtext was more overt as a commentary on the constraints of tradition. 

In ‘Sister Winter’, the focus is set on the gathering that will happen regardless of Christmas, rather than because it’s Christmas if that makes sense. It’s why the final chorus thus begins with a wish for all the best rather than a typical Christmas farewell. The desire for community takes precedence over the scheduled tradition. Besides, it does feel a tad bit poetic that much of the lyrics line up in a vague way to the stories surrounding the Nativity with the title potentially alluding to the annunciating angel and the gathering being comparable to the shepherds. Even if it’s a stretch, it does speak volumes on the creative takes that Sufjan Stevens has in writing music.