We're Not Who You Think We Are
Album: The Age of Adz
Year: 2010
. . .
And so the official follow-up to Illinois, The Age of Adz, finally came out in October of 2010, a year that had already seen a slew of ambitious albums, from Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and The Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs to Janelle Monae’s The ArchAndroid.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #2541: Sufjan Stevens – “Too Much”
Album: All Delighted People EP
Year: 2010
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Out of all of the who knows how many songs I’ll eventually end up writing about, my guess is that “Djohariah” is in the top 1% of the “you either fully love this song or utterly despise it” category. Because I can’t see any other reaction to a 17-minute song from a brother to his sister where the actual lyrics don’t really start until 11 minutes in.
Despite the fact that All Delighted People is billed as an EP, “Djohariah” is two minutes longer than The Clash’s Cost of Living EP and only slightly shorter than the Pretenders Extended Play EP. Though, that said, it is a minute or so shorter than Future Certain Song “Close to The Edge,” so there’s that.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #2540: Sufjan Stevens – “Djohariah”
Album: All Delighted People EP
Year: 2010
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Of course, we weren’t ever going to get the other 48 albums of Sufjan Stevens’ purported “50 States Project.” No single human being could have possibly done that. Even one as prolific as Sufjan Stevens.
What we did get was a shit-ton of other things: a Illinois outtakes album called The Avalanche, a soundtrack album called the BQE and a box set of 42 Christmas songs. But no official follow-up. Not until 2010, when it was announced that Sufjan’s next official studio album, entitled The Age of Adz, would drop in October.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #2539: Sufjan Stevens – “Heirloom”
Album: Illinois
Year: 2005
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On the short list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Christian Indie Folk Division, “Casimir Pulaski Day” is also one of the most heartbreaking songs ever written, and Sufjan Stevens gets right into it over a lonely acoustic guitar.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #2538: Sufjan Stevens – “Casimir Pulaski Day”
Album: Illinois
Year: 2005
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Road trip!
Another one of those songs that I love beyond all reasons, Sufjan Stevens grand and glorious travelogue “Chicago” is one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard about being a small-town young discovering the beauty and madness of the big city. And realizing that even if that experience somehow changes you, you’re still yourself, too. Just a different yourself.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #2537: Sufjan Stevens – “Chicago”
Album: Illinois
Year: 2005
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Utterly bursting at the seams with ambition and musicality, Sufjan Stevens 2005 album Illinois betrays just how over the top it is by having at least three different titles. You can refer to it as Illinois, Illinoise, or the hilarious Come on and Feel The Illinoise!
Oh, and then there are the song titles: my favorites are “Prairie Fire That Wanders About” and “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!”, but I also have to give a shout out to “The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, ‘I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'” because it’s an instrumental.