Sleigher (2024)

"After releasing the piano pop album "What Matters Most" in 2023 Ben Folds speculated that this might be his last pop album. But back in 2024, a year in which he launched a literal Paper Airplanes Request Tour, he put together his first-ever vacation album. In the style of Vince Guaraldi, Randy Newman and The Lawrence Welk Show, the self-produced "Sleigher" offers seven new Christmas compositions (five songs and two piano instrumentals) in addition to three covers. AI for help with lyrics. Along the way, and maybe the best of the bunch, are two lovely, too-brief instrumentals: melancholy opener "Little Drummer Bolero" and the pretty "Waiting For Snow". Taken together, Folds has conjured an around-35-minute mini-masterpiece in "Sleigher" that resists, lightly mocks, and finally embraces the Christmas spirit somewhere between the midway point and cheerful closer "You Don't Have To Be A Santa Claus." (AllMusic; 4 uit 5 sterren)