Piano man Ben Folds released the solo album What Matters Most last year, and now he’s announced plans to follow it with his first-ever Christmas LP. The Ben Folds holiday record comes out next month, and it’s called Sleigher. (It’s a pun. You get it.) The album is mostly original, but it’s got a few versions of standards.

Talking about Sleigher, Ben Folds has this to say:

Christmas is constant. Allowing you to take stock of what’s different, to understand who you are and all the ways you’ve grown and changed. There’s something about Christmas that really pushes you to ask, “Who am I now? How did I get here?” You can look back on Christmases from your childhood and see the progression, or you can zoom out and look back at Christmas songs from the ‘30s and ‘40s and ‘50s and see we’ve evolved socially and culturally. Having that consistent framework is really illuminating. I love those holiday classics that are totally broad and timeless, but I’ve only ever been able to be myself, and I realized the most generous thing I could do with this album was write the best songs I could, no matter where that took me. Anything else just wouldn’t ring true.

Along with the announcement, Folds has shared one cover and one original. “The Christmas Song,” the “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” one, dates back to 1945. Robert Wells and Mel Tormé wrote it, and Nat King Cole made it famous. Folds’ version is relatively stripped-down and traditional, with a harmonica solo that I wasn’t expecting. As for the original, “We Could Have This” is a florid duet with Folds’ current opening act, the actress and musician Lindsey Kraft. Below, listen to both songs and check out the tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Little Drummer Bolero”
02 “Sleepwalking Through Christmas”
03 “Me And Maurice”
04 “Christmas Time Rhyme”
05 “Waiting for Snow”
06 “We Could Have This” (Feat. Lindsey Kraft)
07 “The Christmas Song”
08 “The Bell That Couldn’t Jingle”
09 “Xmas Aye Eye”
10 “You Don’t Have To Be A Santa Claus”

Sleigher is out 10/25 on New West Records. Read our We’ve Got A File On You interview with Ben Folds here.