To prepare for the next album, you should park yourself next to a twinkling Christmas tree, maybe some hot cocoa in your hand–though that might be overkill. If you don’t have a Christmas tree, fear not. Load this album onto your iPod and listen to it as you walk around rich neighborhoods with brightly lit houses at dusk.

Sugarland’s Christmas album Green and Gold seems made for both scenarios. There’s something about country music that can be both sad and hopeful at the same time. It’s the underlying current of melancholy in country music that keeps me coming back for more. It’s not surprising, then, that even the more upbeat tracks on the record, like “Holly Jolly Christmas” sound almost as if Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush are singing their hearts out in the snow, watching the visions of cheer from outside a fogged-up window. This is a Christmas album for the lonely during the holidays–for those of us who are spending the season alone for the first time in years or those of us who can’t make it home at all.

The original tracks on the album like “Gold and Green” and “City of Silver Dreams” flow effortlessly into our old favorites, making them new favorites of the season. Kristian Bush wonders about an old love in “Maybe Baby (New Year’s Day)” and fantasizes about rekindling a romance on New Year’s Eve. It’s probably the only time in the year that people all over the world pack their bags and head back to the places they grew up, en masse. It’s the season for hope, for the optimism that this holiday might be that chance we’d been waiting for to change things; maybe baby, all we needed was a little Christmas magic.

There is something of love and longing in nearly every song, even when that longing is just for the spirit to last as long as possible, which is something I think all of us can relate to.

The anti-country groups can relax, too. Sugarland doesn’t hit high country notes until the track “Nuttin’ For Christmas” and then they fall back into the slower, sweeter tunes that they have perfected. If the banjo makes your ears want to curl up and die and country music usually sends shivers of revulsion down your back, you will surprise yourself by listening to Green and Gold, I’m sure. It just might be worth it.

Sugarland is just at home in a warm festive house as a lonely dark bar. They will dance with you in “Winter Wonderland” or they will pull up a chair next to you and order a whiskey to commiserate in the bluesy feel of “Coming Home.” The one thing that stays consistent, though, is the home they make in your heart.

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas.

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