Updated Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 05:19 PM
No one in the indie realm does Christmas quite like singer-composer Sufjan Stevens (shown here). Six winters back, the soft-spoken Midwesterner — best known for “Illinois,” Pitchfork’s 2005 album of the year — gave us 42 “Songs for Christmas” clocking in at two-plus hours. Now, after far-out studio efforts “BQE” (2009) and “Age of Adz” (2010), comes “Silver and Gold,” with 59 more orchestral-folk revisions of carols and standards, plus surprisingly acerbic originals. Packaged as a five-disc box, it’s a lot to process — Stevens has never been concise — but the depth and totality of his crusade against holiday music’s old guard impresses. 8 p.m. Saturday at the Neptune Theatre, 1303 NE 45th St., Seattle; $20 (877-784-4849 or stgpresents.com).
Charlie Zaillian, Special to The Seattle Times
Denny Renshaw
