The 25 days of Christmas: Day 10

The voice.

Today’s song comes to you via the haunting, ethereal sound of Weyes Blood. She has one of the most stunning voices I’ve heard, profound and clear and powerful, and recently toured as Beck’s opening act. If I’m ever on life support and it comes time to pull the plug, I want her voice to be the sound in my ears as I go.

I didn’t even know whether she’d recorded any Christmas music when I started this project, but I was pleased to find this song. “O Holy Night” isn’t my favorite Christmas song (that’s “Silver Bells”—I’ll explain why in another post), but it is stunningly perfect for Weyes Blood’s voice. The long, long build to that pure grace note, with some odd jazzy chords thrown in here and there, is characteristic of her exquisite arrangements.

I don’t have much to add to this one beyond “Wow, this is pretty.” Listen and enjoy.

Notes:

• Other Weyes Blood to check out: Her most recent albums, Titanic Rising and And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow are both terrific. All her stuff is good, but the songcraft has made major leaps on recent records.

• For some reason, she is connected in my mind to Jenny O. Please listen to this song as loud as possible.

• According to Wikipedia, Weyes Blood used to sing for something called Jackie-O Motherfucker. There is no type of person I like more than “ex-punk rocker.”