Thirty Days of Music Day 11 - A Song From Your Favourite Band

'Indie poster boy' Sufjan Stevens has been producing albums as a solo artist for the past ten years, debuting in 2000 with A Sun Came.  One of the most consistantly magnificent songwriters of the decade, he has made a load of wonderful albums including Illinois, Michigan, Sevens Swans and my #4 album of 2010 The Age of Adz.

Casimir Pulaski Day is one of the best songs off his 2005 album Illinois.  Included in almost every Album of the Decade list that I have seen, Illinois is a orchestrally grand, perfectly accurate depiction of the state and it is filled with rich, layered, incredibly uplifting songs.  Casimir is a beautifully heartfelt lament over a lost love - the lyrics are stunningly evocative and the guitar line is beautifully simple.  Sufjan's voice is delicate and emotional, and the images invoked throughout the song are lucid and moving.  This song represents acoustic songwriting at its best.

The video is a live performance at a radio station in America - his live shows are really eccentric, but also brilliantly coordinated - there are rumours of a European tour in the wake of the release of Adz and I can tell you that I would sell my kidney for tickets to see him.

Thirty Days of Music Day 03 - A Song That Makes You Happy

Sufjan Stevens' Chicago has the power to warm just about anyone's heart - it provides you with six minutes of unadulterated happiness and has some intagnible quality to it that just inflates the euphoria within your chest.

When Illinois was released in 2005 it stunned critics with its orchestral grandeur, ambitious scope and evocative lyrics.  It was ranked highly on multiple Albums of the Decade lists, including a #1 from Paste magazine, and has been both critically and popularly acclaimed.  The whole album itself is so emotionally balaced - treading the fine line between sorrow and euphoria - and Chicago sits in the soul of the album, epitomising everything that it has come to represent.  It's filled with joyous trumpeting, swooning violins and uplifting lyrics.  The song seems to carry forward in a rush of released energy, and the lyrical content is uplifting without being cliched.  Sufjan sings out 'I made a lot of mistakes' without regret or anger but with a reminiscent fondness - the song revolving around the idea of rebirth from past experiences ('to recreate us/ all things grow, all things grow').  It works so well, just like the album as a whole, because the song seems to take happiness from sorrow - for every trough in emotion, there is a larger peak of joy that seems to heal the wounds.

The video above is a great live version - Sufjan puts on such an incredible show and the whole band are insanely talented.  His new album, which I've reviewed on here, was released a few weeks back and hopefully he'll be coming to Europe sometime next year.  I can't wait for it.

The Age of Adz - Sufjan Stevens

I have been a big Sufjan Stevens fan for a long time and I am yet to dislike an album he has released. The critically acclaimed Detroit-born artist has long been a cult favourite, and to me (being part of the aforementioned cult) has been unwavering in his high quality output of music. The Age of Adz only consolidates his position in my mind, as it is another album of immense scope that he has pulled off immaculately.

Taking elements of the banjo-laden, acoustic tracks of Michigan and the orchestral grandeur of Illinoise he has mixed them with a myriad of electronic beats and synths - creating probably his most experimental album to date. It is very different to his previous work and even though you can still pick out trumpets, violins, guitars, piano and the other instruments we expect from him, they are often carefully layered or hidden behind an electronic haze. This dramatic change could shock some die-hard fans, but if you invest your time generously into listening then you will see the true beauty of the songs and arrangements.

Lyrically, Sufjan has taken a different approach to his previous albums - before, the emotion in the songs would be rooted in geographical or historical context, whereas in Adz we tend to see the raw feeling untempered by context. This is neither enhancing nor depreciating to his music - it is just, perhaps, a hint as to how he is evolving and experimenting. How he is not willing to stay static for too long.

The first single I Walked is an electronically emotional lament with Sufjan’s gentle voice rising and falling over the beat. It’s catchy yet meaningful, each layer combining to drive the song (gently) forward. However, there are some album tracks that far surpass it. The title track is a writhing, dramatic number where you see all of the usual orchestral components combining with heavy beats, cascading synths and a catchy chorus-sung hook. I Want To Be Well maintains a swift tempo yet slowly builds into an emotional crescendo - the chorus repeating the title and Sufjan, as far as I know, swearing for the first time on a track : ‘I’m not f***ing around’. There is something so earnest about this that it seems to exude emotional charge.

Impossible Soul, a twenty-five-minute tour de force at the end of the album sums up the collection as a whole. It may seem like a large investment at first, but you will find yourself more and more willing to return - each listen granting you new revelations.

Sufjan Stevens

I just found this video on Youtube and remembered what a great songwriter Sufjan Stevens is. This is called For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti and it's from the album Michigan. He's such a good composer, so if you haven't yet heard much of his stuff look up Illinoise - probably his best and most successful album. Unlike Michigan, it has a more orchestral nature and the songs are very lavishly arranged, making use of a wide variety of instruments. Personally, I also find Illinoise is a happier album and it is much more upbeat in general.
Top Songs: Casimir Pulaski Day, Jacksonville, Chicago