Sufjan Stevens is an American musician, recording albums since 1999, whose music usually falls in the independent/alternative genre...but my local alternative rock station, 100.5 WHHZ, never played any of his songs. It wasn't until 2009, after that station had lamentably switched its format to hard rock, that I sought out alternative stations on the Internet...and heard my first Stevens tune, his biggest hit Chicago. Then I checked out YouTube and realized that this was a very talented, inspired artist and began to collect his albums. The greatest works of Sufjan Stevens were his Michigan and Illinois albums: he lived for a time in each state and they provided the historical, biographical, and spiritual themes for the tracks. By the time I was aware of his music, Stevens had been going through a drought of output, partly due to what he has said was an undiagnosed chronic nervous ailment. I don't care as much for his recent works, although his 2015 Carrie and Lowell album was very good. I'm very skeptical about the bigshot music celebrities nowadays who get all the publicity and acclaim...here's someone whose music is much better than anything I've heard on the Grammys or MTV Video Awards...
And so, here's a list of my top thirty favorite Sufjan Stevens songs, each entry followed by its album...
1 DETROIT, LIFT UP YOUR WEARY HEAD...Michigan, 2003
2 JACKSONVILLE...Illinois, 2005
3 CASIMIR PULASKI DAY...Illinois
4 NIAGARA FALLS...Michigan, 2003 (bonus track, and no, it is not in "Michigan"))
5 FOURTH OF JULY...Carrie and Lowell, 2015
6 COME ON FEEL THE ILLINOISE...Illinois
7 ADLAI STEVENSON...The Avalanche, 2006
8 FLINT...Michigan
9 DECATUR...Illinois
10 PITTSFIELD...The Avalanche
11 CHICAGO...Illinois
12 SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER...Carrie and Lowell
13 ALL GOOD NAYSAYERS, SPEAK UP!...Michigan
14 THE HENNEY BUGGY BAND...The Avalanche
15 CONCERNING THE UFO SIGHTINGS...Illinois
16 IMPOSSIBLE SOUL...The Age of Adz, 2010
17 JASON...A Sun Came, 1999
18 FOR THE WIDOWS IN PARADISE...Michigan
19 DEATH WITH DIGNITY...Carrie and Lowell
20 I WALKED...The Age of Adz
21 YEAR OF THE DOG...Enjoy Your Rabbit, 2001
22 IN THE DEVIL'S TERRITORY...Seven Swans, 2004
23 DEAR MR SUPERCOMPUTER...The Avalanche
24 BLUE BUCKET OF GOLD...Carrie and Lowell
25 THE AVALANCHE...The Avalanche
26 I WANT TO BE WELL...The Age of Adz
27 ARNIKA...All Delighted People
28 OH GOD, WHERE ARE YOU NOW?...Michigan
29 THE UPPER PENINSULA...Michigan
30 THE BLACK HAWK WAR...Illinois
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