PREMIERE: Happy October! Here’s David Bazan’s Beautiful Cover of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”

Few artists are better equipped to tackle a Christmas album than David Bazan. Part of this comes down to experience—Bazan has been releasing holiday tracks since 2002, the midst of his Pedro The Lion days. His delicate, natural melancholy seeped into covers  of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and Low's "Long Way Around the Sea." He drew from the contemporary and classical in equal measure, eradicating the space between the two.

Dark Sacred Night, his forthcoming Christmas record, set to be released by Suicide Squeeze on November 11, retraces those steps, remastering ten of those long since out-of-print  cuts. "It seemed like an interesting challenge," Bazan said, announcing the record. "As a musician, my relationship with Christmas and its music is pretty strange. It's the normal band dude relationship with that stuff, but then also throw in Christianity and all that shit… my discomfort seemed appropriate for the material. I'm bringing up a lot of hard things in terms of religion, family, commercialism gone mad."

In short, Bazan is uniquely placed to bring a spiritual weariness to a Christmas album, a wry sensibility that still refuses to stray from beauty.

So, it's Noisey's honor to officially declare Christmas song season open by premiering Bazan's cover of John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)." It's spare, and pretty, and, on the third listen, devastatingly sad in its repeated desire for hope and peace.

We tracked down Bazan for a quote on the song and were rewarded with the following :

Bazan will be touring around the holiday season. Listen to "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" below and check out those tour dates beneath that.

David Bazan's Christmas Miracle Tour
12.04.16 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
12.08.16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge
12.13.16 – San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
12.17.16 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
12.18.16 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos

​​Lead photo by Ryan Russell c/o Riot Act Media.​

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