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Last Active 05-20-17 7:44 pm
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| The Ten Best Sufjan Stevens Songs
(I forgot Sputnik only allows 1,000 characters for list descriptions, so the descriptions I had to be cut down a lot. For the full entries on these songs, please click this link: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Stephen96/the-ten-best-sufjan-stevens-songs/ ) | | 11 |  | Sufjan Stevens
The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras
HONORABLE MENTIONS
20. In the Devil's Territory
19. Chicago
18. To Be Alone With You
17. Fourth of July
16. For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti
15. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us
14. Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)
13. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
12. Should Have Known Better
11. Impossible Soul | | 10 |  | Sufjan Stevens
Seven Swans
"THE TRANSFIGURATION"
“Chrisitan rock” is pretty widely considered insipid. But Sufjan Stevens is a rare exception who weaves his Christian theology into his songwriting, without fitting into the stereotype of “Christian Rock” by letting them overpower his music and defang his messages. Religious implications run through many of his best songs. But instead of attesting to Stevens’ blind faith, they add an air of importance that connects the characters in his stories to the world outside of the proceedings.
The power in “The Transfiguration” is that it presents its Biblical story with appropriate seriousness and uses its profound imagery – like Jesus’ flaming robes or the treacherous mountainside setting – to illustrate the importance of the events that are occurring. The transformation of Jesus into a heavenly being is incredibly stirring and relevant when it is told over a rapturous chorus and references this legendary figure as not just the son of God, but the “son of man.” | | 9 |  | Sufjan Stevens
Illinois
"JACKSONVILLE"
"Illinoise" is widely acclaimed for being Stevens' most musically dense album. It quite expertly blends Stevens' traditional chamber pop elements with his own rendering of regional sounds. In the case of "Jacksonville", it's a slow burning jazz composition reminiscent of Chicago native Von Freeman's warm pieces.
"Jacksonville" is at its peak when it ascends to its final crescendo, complete with a massive horn section and a subtler string orchestra that imbues the song with an incomparably graceful flow. The masterful thing about "Jacksonville", however, is the entire backing ensemble is so synchronous that the song seems less complex than it really is. An amazing shot that details the intricacy of the piece is from Stevens' performance at Austin City Limits, where his backing ensemble is almost comically large (although the comedy might come more from their fluorescent butterfly wings). "Jacksonville" is technically precise and simultaneously thrilling. | | 8 |  | Sufjan Stevens
The Age of Adz
"I WANT TO BE WELL"
The grandeur of "Illinoise" hinted at Stevens' ambition someday becoming too much to handle. It took five years - an eternity for musicians - for him to finally release "The Age of Adz", and it is clear that the pressure of producing music in the shadow of Stevens’ most heralded release and his impossible fifty-states goal took a massive toll on his mental state.
In "I Want to Be Well", the penultimate track on "Age of Adz", Stevens is judge, jury, and executioner in the prison of his own mind. Surrounded by manifestations of his fears and doubts, he spirals into a cacophonous repetition of "I'm not fucking around", a jarring statement from a writer who nearly always has his composure. It culminates to a finish in which Stevens seems to fighting against these inner terrors as they swallow him whole. "I Want to Be Well" is riveting as a view of a man who seems to be slamming his head against a brick wall while a battle rages inside of him. | | 7 |  | Sufjan Stevens
Carrie and Lowell
"THE ONLY THING"
“The Only Thing” is Sufjan Stevens’ most existential song. It is ambient and barren musically, allowing the wild thoughts in Stevens’ mind to color the canvas instead. The disarray is only exorcised by pure, unadulterated simplicity delivered not by thinking, but by feeling.
The song appropriately borders on fatalistic, but after Stevens’ compulsions to drive into a canyon, self-mutilate, and rip out his arms and eyes are out in the open, he comes to terms with his only path to hope. The tragedy that struck obviously led him to agonize over every word that was left unsaid to his mother, but also has caused him to doubt his place in the world and his once unwavering faith in god. He may long for his mother, but God’s “signs and wonders” are all he has left. In a way, this is Stevens falling dead to rights at the feet of a higher power, letting his wide-eyed trust in the greater plan of the universe to take hold and guide him into uncertainty. | | 6 |  | Sufjan Stevens
Michigan
"THE UPPER PENINSULA"
“Michigan” is a great album because it uses the tribulations of Michiganders as supplements that explore the whole of a post-9/11 America. Stevens’ portrayal of an American lost in the isolation of one of the U.P.’s forgotten rural communities is not as location specific as it is transcendental of location. This appropriately nameless character is perpetually lost in the shuffle of his monotonous existence. He lives in poverty and isolation far too deep to escape, but too unremarkable to be romanticized.
He knows his life too well to expect change. He watches the news and finds that his situation is forgotten. He sees his inevitable future wife at his local KMart. And he knows his child’s future will be stunted by the cyclical nature of their existence on the Upper Peninsula. The cycle of poverty is a self-fulling prophecy perpetuated both by social order that left the narrator’s community to rot, as well as the complacency of the community with its own demise. | | 5 |  | Sufjan Stevens
A Sun Came
"RAKE" (Greenpoint Version)
In my review of “A Sun Came”, I likened the revamped version of “Rake” to an oasis in a vast desert. Not just because it is by far the best song on an otherwise horrible album, but because it is one of Stevens’ only straightforward love songs. He’s talked about love affairs between characters on “Casimir Pulaski Day” and wrote about a drunken hookup on the haunting “John My Beloved”, but we very rarely learn about his own longing.
In “Rake”, Stevens submits himself fully to his love for the song’s subject. It might seem silly if she weren’t written to reflect a deified status. She is the rock that Stevens leans on and the cave in which he runs for shelter. But she is also powerful enough to metaphorically slap him in the face like an upturned rake. With its angelic choral and airy steel banjo “Rake” aptly sounds zen and otherworldly. The song would fall flat without the change in its atmosphere, which perfectly reflects Stevens’ feelings. | | 4 | | Sufjan Stevens
Michigan
"VITO'S ORDINATION SONG"
Blind faith is a really important tenant of Stevens’ music. It features in his mourning (“The Only Thing”, “Death With Dignity”) and in his jubilation (“Transfiguration”, “In the Devil’s Territory”), but it is always constant. The descent into desolation on “Michigan” causes it to come into question on the penultimate song, but “Vito’s Ordination Song”, which is framed as a celebration of Stevens’ friend as a minister, is a powerful reconciliation between the narrator and God.
The strength is its portrayal of God as a being capable of empathy, as the repeated line that rings until its final coda is “Rest in my arms, sleep in my bed / There is a design to what I did and said”. The warm jazz arrangement draws on the intimacy between God and his subject and creates a piece that is kind and comforting. If it is not cathartic after all of the doom and gloom of the preceding album, then it’s at least somewhat reassuring that everything just might be OK. | | 3 | | Sufjan Stevens
Michigan
"ROMULUS"
Before Stevens’ issues with his mother came to the forefront of “Carrie and Lowell”, there was “Romulus”, Stevens’ aching account of growth as his mother drifted away from him. The song is almost uncomfortably personal – in fact, saying that it is maybe the best song I have ever heard about parental abandonment feels a bit crass. But that’s a testament to its resonance.
The accounts of young Stevens and his siblings sporadically meeting with their increasingly detached mother are shrouded in mystery. “Romulus” is primarily about how the idea of his absent mother colored young Stevens’ view of her irreparably. For much of Stevens’ life, his mother was just a sketch, slowly colored in by each phone call and trip to Michigan. But he never fully saw her until the encounter crushingly described in the song’s last verse, where the veil is lifted and all Stevens finds is shame and disgust with his mother, who smokes and colors her hair as their grandfather dies in front of her. | | 2 | | Sufjan Stevens
Illinois
"COME ON! FEEL THE ILLINOISE!"
The title track of Stevens’ momentous “Illinoise” can simultaneously be read as a celebration of American innovation and progress, and as a comment on American gluttony and the consumerism that distracts us from the evil in the world. The bouncy, “Chicago Transit Authority”-like arrangement certainly suggests optimism and wonderment. After all, the song is set in front of the legendary Chicago World’s Fair. The ferris wheel and these other “optimistic pleasures” are inviting fixtures on the song’s surface, but mask something far darker.
It is well known by now that as the festivities rolled on, a serial killer killed over 200 without a hitch and the plans to assassinated the city’s beloved mayor were drawn up in the shadows of the Fair. But “Illinoise” reconciles that by carrying on and enjoying these fleeting pleasures as they pass, because without the silly trivialities of ferris wheels and cream of wheat, all we have is cruel darkness. | | 1 | | Sufjan Stevens
Illinois
"CASIMIR PULASKI DAY"
“Casimir Pulaski Day” is a song about an irreparable loss, but its final moments ring with hope. The narrator helplessly watches as his first love dies of bone cancer with his affections left unexpressed. Much of the sadness in the song comes from the narrator watching a ticking time bomb, trying to formulate a response to the sorrow around him, and coming up empty. But the ending suggests that his efforts to care for her were not in vain. His begging to God is answered. The final moments of the song represent, with great clarity, an ascent.
It’s hard to decide if “Casimir Pulaski Day” is one of the saddest Sufjan Stevens songs or one of the most optimistic. The girl’s death is one more in an endless cycle – insignificant. But “Casimir Pulaski Day” suggests that in some divine place, there is someone looking out for this young person who perished before her time. Even if we are specks profoundly alone in space, we can still be seen by whatever god is out there. | |
Papa Universe
08.14.17 | this is quality | Joeman82
08.14.17 | We're actually called Michiganders not Michiganites. Stupid I know.
I really liked Illinois so I should probably check more of his stuff. Quality list. | StephenIsHere
08.14.17 | Wow, I didn't know that. My Microsoft Word didn't spell correct "Michiganite" so I assumed it was the correct term. The more you know! | Papa Universe
08.14.17 | FEATURED!!! | Lavair
08.15.17 | I was really confused until I realized it went in reverse, so it went best-to-even-more-best. | Toad
08.15.17 | Great last. Hard to disagree with the ranking, though Vito's is probably my favorite. | neekafat
08.15.17 | Slowly trudging my way through his first albums... "Enjoy Your Rabbit" is a total mess aside from the t/t | CaimanJesus
08.15.17 | I'd have Gacy and 4th of July in my top 10 | bgillesp
08.15.17 | Awesome list! I listened to Illinoise once and wasn't a huge fan, but I really want to give home another shot. I had no idea he had Christian themes in his music so that makes me want to listen even more. Well deserved feature! | Yotimi
08.15.17 | 17 and 13 prob my faves | AtomicWaste
08.16.17 | I think Chicago has to be in the top 10 for me, but this is a pretty good ranking.
I'd probably throw in Age of Adz and Christmas Unicorn too for good measure, though. | ashcrash9
08.16.17 | beautiful list, props | Sinternet
08.16.17 | you cant just do a sufjan ranked list and keep chicago and fourth of july out the top ten!
but 1 is 1 nice | Sinternet
08.16.17 | needs some deep cuts like year of the ox tho | Ryus
08.16.17 | good to see 1 as 1 | neekafat
08.16.17 | Just jammed Michigan for the first time and I wasn't really feelin' it tbh | protokute
08.16.17 | his albums are just so long :/ | Artuma
08.18.17 | 10 is so underrated | Snake.
08.18.17 | bad ranking holy shit |
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