Ben Folds Premieres Two Tracks From Holiday Album, ‘Sleigher’: Writing Original Songs, ‘I Just Realized How Christmas Frames Everyone’s Year’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Holiday records tend to be more of a late-career refuge for artists who see an easy shot to knock off some covers than something most top-flank singer-songwriters view as a chance to creatively mine for a whole set of fresh material.

So fans of the Christmas genre — which, evidence suggests, would be most of America — have something more compelling to look forward to this year, in the form of Ben Folds‘ first holiday collection, “Sleigher,” for which the celebrated artist wrote seven original numbers themed to the season, along with recording three covers.

It’ll be out via New West Records on Oct. 25, but with a month to go till the full set, Variety is premiering two tracks from the album for anyone who wants to get a musical jump on the season.

Click below for Folds’ take on the most familiar of all mid-century carols, “The Christmas Song,” and also the first original to be unveiled, his duet with actress and touring partner Lindsey Kraft on a romantic reverie they co-wrote, “We Could Have This.” Folds spoke with Variety about how “Sleigher” came together and admitted that his original intent was, in fact, to be just a little lazier, if we can call it that, by indulging more in doing covers, before the bug to write a sleighful of original material really bit him. “It’s fun to write something almost to an assignment, and that’s kind of what this was,” Folds says. “I always kind of like something that’ll just make me write,” he notes, and so he proposed to the label that he get a combined budget for 2023’s “What Matters Most” and a separate Christmas album.