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July 26, 2005
Sufjan Stevens -- Illinois
| Here is my latest CD recommendation for everyone: I believe the official title may be just "Illinois" but the cover reads "Sufjan Stevens invites you to: Come on feel the Illinoise". Whatever you call it, this is an outstanding CD, one of the best I've heard all year. |  |
I can't pretend to know much about Sufjan Stevens, including how to pronounce the guy's name. I had heard of him before, especially in association/comparison with Iron & Wine, whose CD I also bought recently and loved. Like Iron & Wine, he sings mellow folk songs, but unlike Iron & Wine, on this album at least, Stevens expands beyond acoustic guitar and banjo to widely varying instrumentation.
The songs here, as the title suggests, are thematically centered on Illinois. Even more than on his previous effort "Greetings from Michigan", Stevens researched the history and places of Illinois and took these for inspiration, leading to a far-reaching group of songs, touching on people from Abe Lincoln and Helen Keller to John Wayne Gacy, in places from Decatur and Jacksonville to Chicago.
The CD contains 22 tracks, about half of which are standard songs with vocals while the other half are musical interludes and short transitions, with names ranging from "Chicago" all the way to "To The Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament". Lyrically, there are a few songs that sound a bit like a 6th-grade book report, such as "Come on! Feel the Illinoise, part 1: The World's Columbian Exposition", with its short descriptions of the things found at the Expo, or "DECATUR, or, Round of Applause for your Stepmother!", with the outstanding rhyme "Stephen Douglas was a great debater. Abraham Lincoln was the Great Emancipator." If all of this sounds pretentious, or quirky/annoying to They Might Be Giants levels, the amazing thing is that it is not.
Tucked in between these songs and rhymes are some really serious and sophisticated songs, such as "CASIMIR PULASKI DAY", about the death of a past lover, which happened on what is apparently an Illinois state holiday, or "JOHN WAYNE GACY, JR.", an interesting take on the life of the famed serial killer.
But it's the music that makes the CD. The songs are expansive but light and the arrangements are as varied as the subject matter of the songs. Some songs utilize a string section for backup, others a female chorus, and some just a solo trumpet. While a whole album of songs with strings, or just acoustic guitar songs may have dragged or seemed monotonous, the flow here keeps things moving and keeps the listener surprised. There would be no problem listening to this entire CD straight through. The rhythms are also very interesting -- they seem to be built on non-standard time signatures, though it may just be a musical trick (I haven't focused hard enough to figure it out).
Stevens' voice is a little thin, but fits the music fine, especially on the acoustic numbers. The lyrics are quirky, but musically, they are brilliant -- every syllable fitting like a puzzle piece -- and the songs are extremely sing-along-able.
Finally, the cover art is terrific, depicting many of the Illinois subjects in one long, folded mural.
Posted by JoshHornik at July 26, 2005 12:20 PM
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