Sufjan Stevens

A few weeks ago, I was listening to AOL Radio, on their "Indie Rock" channel. I lucked out, getting a string of great songs (later on I found out that this wasn't the norm). In the middle of it was a song titled Chicago by someone called Sufjan Stevens. It was the best of the lot, and I investigated this artist on the Internet.

Sufjan Stevens is an independent/alternative popular musician who grew up in Michigan, lived in Chicago, and now resides in New York. He has made several albums since since his debut A Sun Came in 2001. Stevens put out an electronica album titled Enjoy Your Rabbit, based on each of the signs of the Chinese Zodiac (Year of the Monkey, Year of the Tiger, etc.). He has released five Christmas albums as well as an album of original Christian-themed folk songs (Seven Swans). But his best works, in my opinion, are his "fifty-state project" albums.

Around 2003, Sufjan Stevens released an album titled Michigan, which then examined various aspects and locales of that state. A couple of years later, he repeated the process with his Illinois (technically titled Sufjan Stevens Invites You to Come On Feel the Illinoise). Illinois received much critical praise and several awards in 2005, but didn't break through to the general radio airwaves. It contains 15 full songs, each of which I regard as excellent. And the themes are, naturally, Illinois-based: cities like Chicago, Decatur, and Jacksonville; the holiday Casimir Pulaski Day; the Palisades; the Sear's Tower (transformed by Stevens into The Seer's Tower); the depraved serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr.; and the nineteenth century Black Hawk War, to name a few topics. By the way, if you count the or's, The Black Hawk War, a two-minute wordless-but-sung track, is the longest title that I have ever encountered: 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!' .

Stevens is an accomplished musician in several instruments and sings with a soft, soothing voice. But his lyrics are often very cutting, and his clear vocal delivery gives the listener little opportunity to miss anything he has to say. He also recorded his albums with multiple tracks. On Illinois, he separated the lengthy instrumental endings of some of its songs by calling them separate pieces. That gave two alternative endings for some of the songs.

Various rumors have floated around as to whether Sufjan Stevens will follow through on his expressed plan to record albums about all fifty states. He is a bit of a prankster, so who knows. But Illinois came out about four years ago, so he needs to "get cranking" if he wants to accomplish this before the "Star Trek Era" commences around 2060 (my way of saying "before hell freezes over")! I personally doubt that he will continue his "states" theme much longer, seeing that his first two, Michigan and Illinois, have strong autobiographical themes to them. I expect much of the same in any later works as well.

Here are my favorite Sufjan Stevens songs so far (with their albums in parentheses):

1: Casimir Pulaski Day (Illinois)
2: Jacksonville (Illinois)
3: Chicago (Illinois)
4: Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois (Illinois)
5: Come On Feel the Illinoise (Illinois)
6: In the Devil's Territory (Seven Swans)
7: All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace! (Michigan)
8: Decatur (Illinois)
9: The Henney Buggy Band (The Avalanche)
10: Jason (A Sun Came)