So much 5

Album Rating: 4.0

dooooo you want to beeee afraid?



that section in particular is amazing.

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

This has aged terribly.

Album Rating: 5.0

ur anus has aged terribly

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

I know it, man. Fortunately for me I was given a vial of water taken from the Fountain of Youth itself.

This is still as memorable as the first time I heard it so I don't know what you're snorting

fuck yeah lakes rec me something that sounds like this that i haven't already heard yet

last two tracks are still incredible, most listened here with the opener

yea i've heard all the of montreal albums

Album Rating: 5.0

This album is about Sufjan forsaking his Christian faith? How did you possibly come to that conclusion?



It's the complete opposite; he's never been more explicit. Of course, if you're not a Christian (or a very good one), or are simply not diligent enough to find out, it's not really that clear.



_____



This album is an incredibly glorious realization of the hope found in grace (or Christ). Impossible Soul is an epic about the difficulties of sanctification and following Christ, through the lens of relationships. He's essentially echoing Ecclesiastes when he says,

"Don't be distracted" and "It's a long life, better pinch yourself, put your face together, better get it right."

I really could go on about how theologically AWESOME these lyrics are, but you should get the point.

"I Walked" is also about following grace, personified into a woman here. "I walked, because you walked, but I probably won't get very far." I think he likes to give the impression that his songs are about women, when they are really analogies about our relationship to Christ, seen through these relationships (U2/Bono does the exact same thing. Check out "With or Without You" and "Where the Streets Have No Name"). How do I know this?

1. He's undeniably a Christian. It affects everything you say and do, whether you like it or not.

2. He got a liberal arts degree. These people think like this. If you have a liberal arts degree, you know what I mean. This guy knows how to think and how to use rhetoric to his advantage (like most artists, to perhaps hide deeply personal information with a thin veil of songwriting "craft"). He has been trained in ancient arts and understanding, which are far greater and deeper than most art out there now. Never ignore the fact that the classical age was glorious; these are platonic, Christian, and stoic ideas he is grappling with here. Sadly, most people don't give a damn about these important concepts. You simply cannot understand are, if you are unfamiliar with:

1. Christianity

2. Paganism.

-These two realms of ideas are the most influential ones that have ever existed, especially for art (the classical age, the Medieval Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, modernism, postmodernism...it's everywhere)

Album Rating: 5.0

Look at all the other songs he's written. "Casimir Pulaski Day" is the same thing, but the personal side of it is really evident (All the glory that the Lord has made...and He takes and He takes and He takes...This is recapitulation of Job). Same with John Wayne Gacy Jr, which has a message that everyone is equal in their depravity.



The book of Revelation also has a clear influence on him (The Seven Swans and all of the Age of Adz). Take a note at the title "the age of Adz". This has a double meaning, if I've ever known one. In Christianity, the age between Christ's first and second coming is one of strife, paradox, partiality, confusion, struggle, and hope. Fittingly, all of this duality (Christ has won...but not yet) is seen, since he's said that it's pronounced the "age of odds".

Speaking of the Age of Adz, that song encapsulates everything I have previously shown. Just look at the lyrics:



"Well I have known you For just a little while But I feel I've known you I feel I've seen you When the Earth was split in fives And in your words, I Should let it out, I Would see it die But I'm a watcher I see it watch her It's in your afterlife This is the Age of Adz Eternal living Oh, keep from trying Oh, keep from caring You are the life We see you trying to Be something else that You're not, we think you're nice The circumstances Of what I thought, I Could see it now I wouldn't be so I wouldn't feel so But it's a running wild

...

And all reflections I see your method I see it all And what about you? And what about me? Are we the lost of lost? Don't speak to soon, don't Be fruit o' loom, don't Excite yourself...The gorgeous mess of Your face impressed us Imposed in all its art...Gloria, Gloria It rots Victoria, Victoria It lives in all of us..."

Album Rating: 5.0

This is one of the coolest songs a Christian has ever written. We may live in an age where odds and paradox rules, but we can still see the reflections of his glory in this life. He is reflected everywhere, especially when the earth is split in fives (a nod to Revelation, the end times, when God comes back to claim what belongs to Him). God is the life, but when we see that, we get confused and can't completely explain it (he's explained in interviews that this album is very stream of consciousness. That's seen here.) The face of God comes through as a gorgeous mess, but it still impresses us...



Lastly, in the end, when everything is made new, the old must die. The glory we make for ourselves (in Latin, Gloria. Again, his liberal arts degree.) that we hold on to will rot away, but the one thing that will not rot away is the glory of the Victory (Latin: Victoria). And it is this victory that lives in all of us, even when we find ourselves so desperately wanting to die and see it.



Sufjan is not fucking around here. If we are to believe that God really came in the flesh, to intercede on our behalf, it should cause us to make nothing less than an album as beautiful as this.



_____



P.S. Sorry I took so long. I feel like I had to explain. The misunderstanding was killing me inside.

Album Rating: 2.0

'This has aged terribly.'



the puns lol

poo album

Album Rating: 3.5

ive only listened to this once and it was awesome

Album Rating: 2.0

Scott's awesome I would kill to have a friend like him I wish I was canadian



]:

Album Rating: 2.0

joey brown?

Album Rating: 2.5

this is pretty darn cool

Album Rating: 1.0 | Sound Off

lol this albem

Album Rating: 3.5

yeah the soft bulletin is way better agreed acad