Sufjan Stevens

ShoulderChip

Just thought a sufjan thread is missing from this forum.
I have been listening to him a lot lately.
For anyone who hasn't heard His Ilinois concept album Come on here the Ilinois it is a must reccommend.

It got a score of 90 on Metacritic which is almost absurdly high, and was the highest rated album on the site for 2005.

I have included Pitchforks Review at the end of this post

His most famous song taken from soundtrack to Little Miss Sunshine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5b3rVhJbeY

The best travel writers skew their journeys into pointed narratives, writing the story of the landscape by seizing all the weird, awkward bits that make it distinct. On first listen, Sufjan Stevens' latest installment of state-based chamber-folk, Illinois, sounds dangerously similar to 2003's Michigan, all chirping vocals and copious orchestration. Both records inadvertently validate East Coast stereotypes of tough Midwestern values: This is earnest, hard-working music, morally rooted and technically precise.

Still, Stevens has always been a folk singer more in theory than in practice. He routinely ditches folk's scrappy, stripped-down aesthetics, but consistently embraces its stories-of-the-people unanimity. Consequently, Illinois is less about place than spirit. Stevens dutifully celebrates and indicts all the appropriate landmarks, isolating the highest and lowest points in Illinois history, but at its best, the album makes America feel very small and very real: A boy crying in a van, a girl with bone cancer, stepmothers, parades, bandstands, presidents, UFOs, cream of wheat, trains after dark, a serial killer, Bible study.

Musically, Illinois is strange and lush, as excessive and challenging as its giant, gushing song titles. Despite employing a small army of backers (including a string quartet, the Illinoisemaker Choir, drummer James McAllister, trumpeter Craig Montoro, and a pile of extra vocalists), Stevens is more forefronted than on the comparably solo Seven Swans. Manning nearly every instrument in his arsenal (and some beyond-- Stevens recorded the piano parts at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn), Stevens conducts his friends with impressive grace. Stevens' pipes quiver generously; his vocals could be easily (perhaps accurately) read as precious, but they're really more intimate than emo, and always beautifully echoed by his backers.

The colossal "The Black Hawk War" cartwheels slowly into a climax of strings and horns, gurgling and pushing, ostensibly signifying (with much aplomb) the violent return of the Sac and Fox Indians to Illinois. Stevens may be deploying state propaganda, or validating Black Hawk's push home, but no matter how grave its reality, the moment still lands like a giant, neon-cased WELCOME TO ILLINOIS billboard. Trumpets blare, submission looms, our eyes widen, it makes sense: Illinois. Is. The. Greatest. State. Of. All. TIME!

The excellent "Casimir Pulaski Day" (named after an Illinois state holiday honoring the polish-born victor of the Battle of Brandywine) is a heartbreaking story of late winter death, bravely sung over rich banjo; the bubbly "Decatur" (the title of which is, awesomely, rhymed with "alligator," "aviator," and "emancipator") features one of Stevens' most undeniable melodies, the kind of pretty, tinkling cue that sends everyone in earshot twirling through the streets, jazz hands and all. Matthew Morgan yelps solid backing bits (see their gorgeously squeaky harmony on "Stephen A. Douglass was a great debater/ But Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator!"), while Daniel and Elin Smith (of Brother Danielson, and the Danielson Famile) chime in for a campfire finish, complete with self-applause.

Stevens has a remarkable habit of being rousing and distressing at the same time, prodding disparate emotional centers until it's unclear whether it's best to grab your party shoes or a box of tissues. The gut-punching "Chicago" cagily celebrates the innate (and deeply American) tendency to employ highways as escape routes, ditching old mistakes for new swatches of land, new plates of eggs, new parking lots. Impossibly propulsive, each calm, harmonized, Illinoisemaker cry of "All things go!" pushes harder, promising liberation, by death or by automobile: "If I was crying/ In the van with my friend/ It was for freedom/ From myself and from the land," Stevens chokes, voice shaking over a haze of drums, strings, and shimmering keyboards.

"John Wayne Gacy, Jr." traces, with alarming accuracy, and over a hazy swirl of acoustic guitar and piano, the pathology of Illinois' most infamous serial killer: From 1972 until his arrest in 1978, Gacy was responsible for the torture, rape, and murder of 33 boys and young men, many of whom were discovered buried under the floorboards of his Norwood Park home. Lyrically, Stevens nails the specifics (as a kid, Gacy was slammed in the head by a swing, resulting in a blackout-inducing blood clot in his brain; he routinely donned a clown suit to entertain at a local hospital; victims were typically immobilized with chloroform-soaked cloths), and shifts perspectives gracefully; anchored in first-person, the song's narrator prods Gacy's mother and father, his neighbors, his victims, himself. More than any other track here, "Gacy" highlights Stevens' literary prowess, perfectly packed with nuance and detail.

At seventy-four minutes, Illinois is an exercise in patience; considering how long it takes to dog paddle through all the gooey orchestration, chugging through Stevens' meticulous arrangements and parsing out the melodies, Illinois is a bit of a commitment. Its 21 tracks consist of a handful of transitional snippets (many arresting in their own right), and plenty of good stuff ("The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulder", in particular) is buried way in the back, rewarding those who persevere, and in both theory and execution, Illinois is huge, a staggering collection of impeccably arranged American tribute songs.

ShoulderChip

Has he ever played live in Ireland?
or
has anyone here ever seen him live? say its an experience.

Closing Doors

He has (a couple of times), but I don't think we're allowed talk about it!

On his last tour, the whole band was dressed with wings on their backs, and he threw inflatable Supermen and Santas out into the audience... bizarre!

Pacifico

Closing Doors wrote: »

He has (a couple of times), but I don't think we're allowed talk about it!

On his last tour, the whole band was dressed with wings on their backs, and he threw inflatable Supermen and Santas out into the audience... bizarre!

Yeah was last November I think!

He was brilliant as you'd expect. Hopefully hes writing a new album at the moment!

ShoulderChip

really, FUNK cant believe I missed them,

rumour are that he has started and its about New Jersey;

New Jersey the Musical; an ode to the turnpike

it is mentioned here as a joke, but it does appear to be his next project alright

After the successful bam premiere of his orchestral suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, in November, indie folkster Sufjan Stevens—who has planned to write and record concept albums for all 50 states—is looking to New Jersey. “I’m obsessed with the Jersey Turnpike right now,” he said at the Tibet House benefit on February 13. “It’s so perfected and so efficient. It’s like a military endeavor—it was built by postwar military personnel, and they ran the whole enterprise like the army. And it’s an artery from New York, the great metropolis, to the rural countryside, South Jersey. And it’s very expensive. I like the tolls. I like that you have to pay to drive.” So this is his next musical project? “New Jersey, the musical,” he said with a laugh. “An ode to the turnpike.”

Closing Doors

Pacifico wrote: »

Yeah was last November I think!

It was 2006 actually, and I think the previous time was 2004 (though there may have been one in between).

I caught a Superman

Pacifico

Haha nice

Damn didn't realise it was that long ago!

IanCurtis

He's magnificent...just beginning to listen to the albums now.

Chicago and A Good Man Is Hard To Find from Seven Swans are my favourites, but I'm working my way around the rest!

Highly recommended!

catch--22

'Casimir Pulaski Day' is one of my top songs from the last 10 years! Brilliant songwriter!

BurnsCarpenter

Closing Doors wrote: »

It was 2006 actually, and I think the previous time was 2004 (though there may have been one in between).

I caught a Superman

That first gig was one of my all time faves. Just Sufjan with a guitar, banjo and a map of Michigan.
(Don't think it was promoted by the unmentionables.)

Gunner5

Sufjan Stevens B Sides and Rarities are so good, Borderline and Damascus both worthy of being on an album!

Xavi6

Been trying to get into him lately but just can't. Not a patch on Brighteyes for me.

Peyton Manning

Huge fan of his.

Decatur and John Wayne Gacy Jr. being my favourite songs.

gucci

Closing Doors wrote: »

It was 2006 actually, and I think the previous time was 2004 (though there may have been one in between).

I caught a Superman

Was it really that long ago? Have to say i was dragged along my the mrs. but it was what can only be described as a "beautiful" experience. Really lovely show by a genuine nice, humble and an excellent musician.
I wouldn't really listen to him, but if it comes on I wouldn't turn it off either
As i said the mrs is a big fan, and she usually likes pretty decent stuff in fairness (there are the odd turkeys on her ipod, but who hasnt?)

Gunner5

Have never seen him live. Really wish i could considering its all I've been listening to for the last few months.

Dont think he's touring this year either though. I no he did few gigs in Australia earlier this year. But heres hoping!:)

ShoulderChip

yeah even since starting this thread I can not stop listening.

Gunner5

I Know, started with the Illinoise Album, then Michigan, and then Seven Swans. All brilliant albums.It becomes sort of addictive . Ive spent hours on youtube alone wathcing the videos. Pure Genius!

PeadarofAodh

Have all his albums - definitely in my top 3 favourite musicians! There's a certain amount of chaff to each album, those kind of meandering orchestral noise pieces that I find very difficult to appreciate.

I've probably done the whole listen-to-the-same-song-10-times-in-a-row thing more to his songs than to anyone else's

dream brother

Have to say Sufjan is a legend..both the Illinoise and Michigan albums are first class to listen too but when I heard the last few songs on Seven Swans, i was swept away!!
Classic song writter!!

Twee.

catch--22 wrote: »

'Casimir Pulaski Day' is one of my top songs from the last 10 years! Brilliant songwriter!

Same, I could listen to it over and over. For some unknown reason I always listen to Sufjan Stevens when I'm baking :rolleyes:

Attractive Nun

Wonderful musician, I still come back to this recording of 'Majesty Snowbird' to remind myself of what he's capable of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1fpD5RE6Mg

I do think a lot of his stuff his a bit....samey, or uninteresting, or something. He releases too much I think (though I don't think he's released the above song), but hey that's the nature of him I guess. But yeah at his best he's marvellous.