Sufjan Stevens, Part 2
http://www.nerdglow.com/
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NAME: Sufjan Stevens
GENRE: Indie / Folk
SOUNDS LIKE: Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst, Andrew Bird
The Sufjan Behemoth: a Retrospective (continued)
The Avalanche (2006)
“That's kind of what this album's about-- it's sort of buying time for me. It's like I'm under the illusion that I've been productive, when it's actually all old material.” - Sufjan Stevens, 2006
The Avalanche is chock-full of shockingly good songs. “The Mistress Witch from McClure” is quirky and strangely tragic, “Pittsfield” delves into childhood trauma, and the rest of the album analyzes the intricacies of the state that didn’t make the cut for Illinois. This being said, as an outtake album for Illinois, it’s not particularly notable as we attempt to track musical development.
This being said, Sufjan’s variants of “Chicago” placed on this album are incredibly indicative of his musical range. The original version as well as “Adult Contemporary Listening Version” are both beautiful, fun, and radio-friendly. The acoustic version is quiet and melancholy, and the “Multiple Personality Disorder” version is wonky and unique, with noisier instrumentals and a generally stranger sound. The way that Sufjan is able to shift and experiment on a single song to create four drastically different musical results is a testament to his ability to manipulate tone as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
(Must listens: “The Mistress Witch from McClure”, “Pittsfield”)
Songs for Christmas (2006)
Sufjan’s Catholicism and penchant for experimentation seem to have lead him to a desperately underrated portion of his discography. Yes, most of the tracks on Songs for Christmas are simply folksy or experimental covers of classic Christmas carols, but knowledgeable Sufjanites will be keen to explain the concealed gems on this album, hidden among 40+ Christmas tunes. The wispy, childish woe of “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!” makes it one of Sufjan’s gentlest tracks, addressing a tragic holiday experience in a dysfunctional home and illustrating the musician’s complex relationship with Christmas. The tense tragedy of “Did I Make You Cry on Christmas Day (Well, you deserved it)” features strangely formal and unnerving instrumentation. Finally, the intense orchestral rock of “Sister Winter” makes it the most popular track on this album, as well as a generally engrossing experience.
The gems of Songs for Christmas are buried deep. The series of classic carols that make up the surface of the album are beautiful, but generally lack the listenability of Sufjan’s other albums outside of the colder months. Regardless, the highlight tracks are certainly worth a listen.
(Must listens: “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!”, “Sister Winter”)
Run Rabbit Run and The BQE (2009)
“(Lowell’s) been challenging me to sort of undermine that, how to responsibly sabotage the listenability of my music in order to challenge it. And I think right now, creatively, I need to go somewhere where I'm taking greater risks.”
- Sufjan Stevens, 2006
Sufjan’s work in 2009 spawned two unique instrumental projects. Run Rabbit Run, the first release, features exclusively string-based tracks played by Stevens and his collaborator, Osso. There are certainly some interesting ideas on this album, but similar to Sufjan’s other exceptionally unusual albums, the pieces don’t hold a ton of appeal for those not totally enamored with Sufjan’s sound. That being said, there are some notable highlights. There are definitely pieces in which Sufjan’s penchant for simple, whimsical melodies is highlighted, such as “Year of the Tiger”, and he doesn’t shy away from intensity and transcendence on pieces like “Year of Our Lord” and “Year of the Boar”.
The BQE, meanwhile, is a mixed-media exploration of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in New York City. It is unique and strangely riveting, and the album is certainly best when listened to in the context of the short film. These visuals accentuate the whimsical, orchestral pieces, but the film is similar to Run Rabbit Run in its niche appeal.
Less invested fans probably can hold off on this abstract and exploratory project until they’ve explored other parts of Sufjan’s discography.
All Delighted People (2010)
“I think there's moments where I'm playing around with that element, and everything is harmonious and melodic, then there'll be this undermining chaotic guitar line that rises up out of it, trying to sort of sabotage the harmony. I really want to experiment with that exclusively and get rid of all the pretty, listenable acoustic stuff.” - Sufjan Stevens, 2006
All Delighted People, in my eyes, is probably the most underrated Sufjan project. It preceded Age of Adz by a few months, and yet its sound was very distinct. Far more than a B-side of a full-length album like The Avalanche, it’s a strange, dissonant collage of sound, full of interesting concepts and ideas. The EP is mostly divided up between “traditional” Sufjan tracks, notably “Enchanting Ghost” and “Heirloom”, which prioritize acoustics and gentle instrumentation, and the ethereal “The Owl and the Tanager”, which is long, cryptic and beautiful.
The EP, however, clearly centers around the two variants of its title track. “All Delighted People (Original Version)” and “Djohariah” are both long-form, multi-part, noisy, orchestral tracks that highlight a range of emotion and sound and are impossible to summarize. The classic rock version of “All Delighted People”, meanwhile, is a track that may sound more palatable to the average listener. It replaces the choirs and orchestras with easy-listening classic rock and the discordant guitar solos with simpler baroque pop instrumentation. In this, Sufjan again shows his songwriting strength: his ability to create two wondrously different versions of the same track, one easy-listening and one brash and experimental.
Overall, All Delighted People is an interesting detour within Sufjan’s discography, exploring a diverse set of musical ideas that would have fit poorly among any other project. Its unique, emotional, and dynamic sound has roots in both the acoustic and strings-based beauty of Sufjan’s early work, and his recent forays into abstract violin arrangements and grand orchestral cityscapes.
(Must Listens: All Delighted People (Original Version), The Owl and the Tanager)
The Age of Adz (2010)
“I'm willing to admit that these songs don't measure up to the songs I was writing five years ago; these aren't great songs in terms of the palpable, fundamental nature of a song. But I'm not interested in songwriting anymore. I'm interested in sound and movement. And this material is all about that.” - Sufjan Stevens, 2011
Outside of its misleadingly soft opening track, “Futile Devices”, Age of Adz is a massive shift away from the soft banjo and tender lyricism of much of Sufjan’s early work. Sufjan is bolder and noisier than ever before, presenting an album of roaring drums and grand electronica. As usual, Sufjan has a wide emotional range on the LP, from understated dejection to unbridled joy, but with a theme of discordant catharsis that seems to pervade every track.
Based loosely off of the work of schizophrenic muralist, sign painter, and self-proclaimed prophet Royal Robertson, the influences are palpable. The late Robertson and Stevens seem to share an inclination for the discordant, the grandiose, and the experimental. As Stevens himself put it in an interview with Pitchfork, “Some of my music requires an obsessive-compulsive approach and a real embodiment of excessiveness. So I really have to live in that world of overstimulation.” Robertson’s artwork feels like a visual accompaniment to Adz, with his surreal, dysphoric, work mirroring the grand, electronic cacophonies on tracks such as “I Want To Be Well”, “Age of Adz”, and “Vesuvius”. Meanwhile, Robertson’s light color and surreal futurism on other pieces meshes with other tracks like “All For Myself” and “I Walked”.
The Age of Adz was certainly an unprecedented step forward in Sufjan’s sound. Enjoy Your Rabbit’s noisy, experimentally electronic sound was miraculously merged with both Sufjan’s background in baroque pop and the grand futurist visions of a prolific schizophrenic artist. It’s a testament to the versatility of Sufjan’s musical talent and a generally fantastic album.
Silver and Gold (2012)
“The elusive Christmas hit usually has an indelible melody, clever wordplay, and juxtaposition of conflicting consciousness: joy and heartache, or sacred and profane. Christmas is a Catch-22.” - Sufjan Stevens, 2012
Silver and Gold is totally surreal. The Christmas album is nearly three hours long, filled to the brim with chaotic, unorthodox remixes of classic carols, original Christmas tracks, and so much more. “Jingle Bells” is understated rock and “Joy to the World” is ambient and electronic, with Sufjan experimenting and exploring his way through a vast and distinctly “Sufjan” album.
The volume of Silver and Gold’s content is too large and diverse to describe in any meaningful way. Most of it’s tracks are intentionally dedicated to getting a listener into the Christmas spirit. That being said, there are definitely wonderful tracks on the album for all times of the year. “Christmas in The Room” and “Justice Delivers Its Death” are gentle, powerful, and whimsical. “Christmas Unicorn” is an interesting commentary on consumerism meshed with a crazy synth-filled remix of “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. The album, at the very least, has its fair share of vibrant and remarkable moments.
(Must Listens: “Christmas Unicorn”, “Justice Delivers It’s Death”)
Carrie And Lowell (2015)
“It's something that was necessary for me to do in the wake of my mother's death—to pursue a sense of peace and serenity in spite of suffering. It's not really trying to say anything new, or prove anything, or innovate. It feels artless, which is a good thing. This is not my art project; this is my life.” - Sufjan Stevens, 2015
Carrie and Lowell is quiet, tragic, and beautiful. It’s hard to adequately summarize an album so steeped in emotion and so thorough in its catharsis. Stevens doesn’t attempt to dull or sugarcoat the topics he addresses in the wake of his mother’s death. Listeners are with him through the despair, the peace, and the pain. Though the acoustic style draws obvious comparisons to sparse, acoustic albums like Seven Swans and Illinois, the sound of Carrie and Lowell is more understated and ethereal. There’s no triumph to be found here, like there was in the grandiose orchestral endings of gentle ballads like “Pittsfield” and “Casmir Pulaski Day” off past albums. In the wake of Sufjan’s tragedy, the most we can hope for is serenity rather than triumph.
Dark intimacy pervades the album. “Death with Dignity” grapples with the immediate grief of losing a loved one, while “Fourth of July”, one of the most emotional tracks on the record, recounts Stevens’ experience at the hospital dealing with his mother’s death, and features an intimate, post-death conversation between Sufjan and his mother. The Only Thing” grapples with suicide, and “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross” recounts a painful struggle with substance abuse and faith in the wake of tragedy. In an addition to these examples, it seems that every track on the album delves deep into an aspect of Sufjan’s grief.
That being said, it’s not a total downer. “Should Have Known Better” and “Eugene” both delve into both the positives of Sufjan’s continued life and the joys of his past, musing on certain defining childhood experiences as well as the birth of his niece. There is serenity and joy between Sufjan’s struggle, and it’s as strikingly authentic as the grief.
In Conclusion (2017)
Sufjan’s discography is stunningly diverse. He’s approached vastly different forms of sound, from the smooth and easy-listening to the noisy and jarring, each time producing refined and beautiful music. Sufjan’s an indie veteran, but his sound is as fresh as ever, never stagnating or staying within a certain genre or style. He’s a true virtuoso, and I for one am confident that Planetarium will be a continuation of the man’s consistent musical accomplishments.
Planetarium will be released on June 9, 2017.