Album Rating: 4.0

Maybe he meant Michigan is more focused or balanced or normally distributed even?

Doof is right about Illinois, the first 10 songs are so coherently organised and then it becomes a bit of a glorious mess for the second half. I can sort of see what he means by "centre of gravity".

But I much prefer Illinois' epic qualities and it definitely does have better songs. I was so surprised when you pointed out it was only 8 minutes longer.

Album Rating: 4.0

"Idk, weird takes itt"



Exactly how I feel when you say Michigan is boring. Michigan has a directness and emotional candour that I appreciate, and I suspect that's what johnny means

Album Rating: 4.0

"But I much prefer Illinois' epic qualities and it definitely does have better songs. I was so surprised when you pointed out it was only 8 minutes longer."

i think people tend to look at the amount of tracks and think "wow this is long af" and i mean, it IS long af, but a lot of those tracks are just short snippets.



"Exactly how I feel when you say Michigan is boring. Michigan has a directness and emotional candour that I appreciate, and I suspect that's what johnny means"

just curious wdym exactly by "directness". i know what it means to be direct, but i don't rly get it in this context because it seems to suggest his other albums aren't direct?

Album Rating: 4.0

Well, one example might be that while Michigan also employs short bridging tracks, Illinois does it to the point of distraction. Or when I listen to Oh God, I really feel the distress in the vocal and the guitar line, but there's no song I respond to like that on Illinois. Or that, while John wayne Gacy jr is a great song, the ending which draws a parallel to Gacy being a secret killer and any normal adult having a few secrets is a bit convoluted and silly and lets the song down, but a song like Romulus is far easier to take seriously as a statement on stuff we're not proud of, etc.



Just my feelings, like talking about unemployment and the real world to the slightly more lofty and fanciful content of Illinois (don't get me wrong, I love Illinois for what it is as well)

Album Rating: 3.0

A Sufjan Stevens return huh, cool!



Oh man, I didn't hear about his loss recently. Man what a shame hope he's okay

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

This just gets better and better



A whisker away from ‘C&L’ really

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Ranked/rated:



1. Will Anybody Ever? [5]

2. Red Little Fox [5]

3. So You Are Tired [5]

4. Shit Talk [4.5]

5. Genuflecting [4.5]

6. Running Start [4.5]

7. Goodbye EG [4.5]

8. Everything That Rises [4.5]

9. There’s a World [4]

10. Javelin [4] (only two minutes but it’s actually still great)

Album Rating: 4.0

does it though, Doof? i just heard it for the first time and it all sounded pretty boring to me, coming straight from just listening to Adz and All Delighted People. gonna give it another chance tomorrow tho, could just be fatigued from playing music all day. first listen a bit of a letdown though.



fogza: i agree, the lyric is a bit hard to take at face value, feels a little contrived.. (unless Sufjan has some serious shit to confess). fun fact: one of the biggest fights i got into with my mom was because she was "concerned" that i'd listen to a song with those kinds of lyrics haha

Album Rating: 4.0

Honestly don't get the h y p e here

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Gyro - if you rate 'Adz' super high then this is the opposite tbh



A good thing imo, 'Adz' I only ever listen to about half the tracklist now



This is his easiest breeziest start to finish listen and that's definitely a win for what I was hoping for, but could easily be a negative for someone else



For me, the most Sufjan of all the Sufjan, right in the middle of all his styles



Also nowadays I try not to discog binge around a new release to allow something to be it’s own thing and not have fatigue with their sound, I also don’t usually listen to advance singles either as that screws the experience for me sometimes. Going in ‘fresh’ helps me a lot.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

350 albums from 2023 I've given a go so far this year and this is definitely the best one by quite a margin...but that could equate to only a 3 :D



nah, this being the same quality as 'C&L' was just an inevitable 5



I'm a sucker for him in this form, I rate the two main tunes from the 'Mystery of Love' soundtrack as both 5 out of 5 classics and again this is somewhat similar.



I also get some people would rather a whole album of the 'Age of Adz' t/t or lord save us all, the 'ambitious' (read: all over the place) big statements like 'Impossible Soul'

Album Rating: 4.0

"For me, the most Sufjan of all the Sufjan, right in the middle of all his styles"



the soofiest

Album Rating: 4.0

"Honestly don't get the h y p e here"





It's Sufjan on Sput, what did you expect



--



Disc might be an easy 4.0, will give it some more time

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

It’s hyped everywhere because it’s close to a masterpiece - I imagine it’ll end up in my decade top 20, possibly top 10



I’m finding it hard to fault at this point (on about the tenth listen)



Not many albums this year have commanded fifteen full listens in the first couple of weeks after release but this will get there without trying - it’s a very similar in that way to ‘C&L’ which I also played to death when it came out…that was the album that brought me here so you can blame Stevens for a lot

Album Rating: 4.0

I am not blown away at THAT level, but it's a heartfelt effort for sure, this guy can't do bad music

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

I wasn’t 100% sold that he was someone who could release a concise and easily digestible album until now though

Album Rating: 4.0

Carrie & Lowell seemed pretty concise and digestible to me tehe

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

I think this is a stage more so but yeah, that one was just more intense throughout



I still give ‘C&L’ the slight edge over this but this definitely feels like his smoothest jam and the closest he has to a ‘suits any time’ listen



I’m not sure I want to always listen to ‘4th of July’, this is more an album you invest as much emotion into the listen as you want to bring, while ‘C&L’ is pure ‘you will feel this!’

Album Rating: 4.5

I should preface this by saying that despite my heavy involvement in threads of certain Sufjan eras, I wouldn't characterize myself as a diehard fan. Honestly, his discography in general has been sort of hit-or-miss, but I still hang on everything he releases because of the potential for the type of home run he's so clearly capable of delivering. With that said...



Nothing touches Carrie & Lowell. Aside from being his most emotionally profound recording, the melodies are effortlessly memorable despite being fairly stripped down. The production on that thing is also quite literally perfect. It has a timeless air about it, like all my favorite older folk albums. From the second it dropped, I knew I was listening to a modern classic and in eight years its legend has only grown. It's one of my strongest 5's and would be in a top 10 all-time favorite albums list for me personally.



I find Illinois to be overrated, bordering on annoying, which is very surprising considering my affinity for the grandiose. The short interludes are distracting, nothing registers with me on an emotional level, and all the fanfare feels deliberate. Ironically, my favorite song is Chicago, which is perhaps the boldest embodiment of all the things I supposedly hate about the LP. Weird. To me, Javelin tones down the obnoxious aspects of Illinois and increases the emotional component, successfully achieving balance where Illinois often veered off a cliff. It's Illinois, new & improved.



If Impossible Soul didn't exist, I probably would not even listen to Age of Adz. In fact, usually I just listen to Futile Devices, Vesuvius, and Impossible Soul. The electronic sound does not translate well for him IMO. The Ascension does everything that The Age of Adz did in a more seasoned/consistent/digestible way. I feel like nobody talks about "America" anymore as one of his best songs, which it so clearly is. Aside from that though, I will concede that Age of Adz definitely has better peaks (even if it's an inconsistent mess).



Seven Swans and Michigan both fit into an era of Sufjan that slightly preceded my music-listening prime, and I should revisit both. I have each at a 4 and I recall both of them being pleasant, if a bit too samey.



I listened to A Sun Came and Enjoy Your Rabbit maybe 1-2 times each a very long time ago, don't remember anything about either of them.



I have zero interest in ever hearing Reflections again, either.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

‘Impossible Soul’ as I’ve said before for me is super frustrating because it has three component parts within it that fleshed out would be excellent Stevens songs, but some of the repeated elements are really inane to me and I’m not sure the whole really flows to an extent the separate sections have much to do with each other at heart.



For me it’s slightly above when a rock or metal band have a B-Side that’s a medley of otherwise discarded riffs