Sufjan Stevens’ First New Christmas Song in 15 Years Is an Apology and a Prayer

In huge news for sad gays, indie darling Sufjan Stevens has released his first all-new Christmas song in nearly 15 years. The track, “On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better),” is an apology in musical form, with some characteristically gutting lyrics (“when I wake I still see darkness”) laced with an equally Sufjan-esque glimmer of hopefulness (“don’t put it past the Earth to get better in the end.”)“Let’s try to be better this year: more loving, forgiving, welcoming, and reckoning,” Sufjans said in a press statement accompanying the new release. “This song is a prayer — that we can all find a way to yield to the wisdom and understanding of forgiveness. I believe the world will find its way.” - YouTube www.youtube.com That sort of religious-tinged humanism has earned Stevens a cult following of queer (and otherwise sensitive) fans, long before he came out himself. In October 2023, the singer-songwriter dedicated his album Javelin to his late partner Evans Richardson, publicly confirming his sexuality for the first time. The queer themes and lyrical references spread throughout his music, from his never-completed Fifty States Project to Javelin, had already led many fans to come to the same conclusion, with the question “Is this Sufjan song gay or about God?” becoming a niche meme in the 2010s.“On This Christmas (It Only Gets Better)” was released alongside a music video for the track that features thousands of hand-painted stills — made by Stevens, Michael O’Neal, and Cubby Graham — animating whimsical scenes and fridge magnet messages. The track is a preview of the forthcoming album Worst Christmas Ever!, out November 6, which will compile “15 essentials” from Stevens’ copious Yuletide catalogue.Several of Stevens’ fans joked about the artist wasting no time after Halloween ended to start celebrating the December holiday. “I’m very anti Christmas music in November,” one YouTube commenter wrote. “But for Sufjan