It's difficult to review an album that is such an intimate exploration of someone's personal life. It feels insensitive to criticise what is essentially an artist's eulogy to his estranged mother. Luckily for the reviewer, there is very little to criticise on Carrie and Lowell.
Returning to the indie-folk roots of previous albums, Sufjan Stevens leaves everything bare on Carrie and Lowell. Sparse instrumentation and hushed vocals make for a very different listening experience to 2010's The Age of Adz, but this is no bad thing. One of the first things that is noticed about Carrie and Lowell is just how easy it is to listen to. One can play the album in the background during a period of working or reading and find it accompanies these quiet tasks perfectly. Of course, it is only when you delve deeper into the album and really listen to it that its brilliance begins to shine.
Named for his estranged mother and stepfather, Carrie and Lowell touches on emotions many have experienced: love, grief, depression. Beginning with the sparkling Death with Dignity, Stevens explores the loneliness and disillusion he felt towards his mother after she abandoned him when he was a child. It also touches on his realisation of her death, which is one of the main themes of the album. The album is so perfectly introduced with this song as it is written seemingly how only Sufjan can write. The instrumentation is bright and pretty, and yet the lyrics are so much darker and with this undertone of grief and death.
The album progresses in tune with the opener, with the exceptional Should Have Known Better following the opening track. On my first listen I was captivated, although I wasn't particularly blown away with some of the early songs. All of Me Wants All of You and Eugene are good, but they're not great. These are the only two tracks that felt like filler to me. It's at the halfway point, however, that Carrie and Lowell really begins to impress. Fourth of July is a beautiful, airy song drenched in reverb, describing the last few moments of Stevens' mother on her death bed. The vocals jump back and forth between the perspective of Sufjan and his mother, with Carrie insisting that her son is still the light of her life, despite her abandonment. It is in this song where Carrie and Lowell clicked for me, particularly in the second 'chorus', with some of the best lyrics ever put to paper.
'Did you get enough love, my little dove
Why do you cry
And I’m sorry I left, but it was for the best
Though it never felt right
My little Versailles.'
It is at this moment that the real weight of a mother's death becomes apparent. After all the anger and animosity towards her, Stevens is reminded that his mother's love is still very much apparent. Fourth of July ends with the poignant
'We're all gonna die', which comes as almost bittersweet, as if Stevens has realised that while we are all going to die eventually, it is not explicitly a bad thing.
It must be said that the album picks up somewhat after this point, with tracks The Only Thing and Carrie and Lowell being slightly more upbeat, despite having very personal and sometimes harrowing lyrics. The absolute highlight of the album is John My Beloved, a slow, brooding track with constant electric piano and very little else. It is the only track on the album that has only one obvious vocal track, whereas every other song sounds as if there are four Sufjans singing at the same time. This sudden departure from the typical sound of the album is very poignant, and fits perfectly with the most harrowing lyrics on Carrie and Lowell. Switching between speaking to the partner of a short-lived romance and Jesus, it explores Stevens trying to continue his life after the death of his mother. He desperately tries to function as a human being, turning to God and lovers in an attempt to feel like he is living again. It is to no avail however, as at the end of every chorus and the abrupt end of the song, he states
'There’s only a shadow of me; in a matter of speaking, I'm dead'.
Carrie and Lowell is a masterpiece, though it is one that certainly requires more than one listen to truly appreciate. It feels wrong to review an album that is so personal, as even reading the lyrics is sometimes uncomfortable for how frank and literal they are. That being said, in a selfish way I'm so glad Sufjan Stevens took the time to grieve through his music, as Carrie and Lowell depicts his emotions in a way very little else could.
