sufjan stevens
greetings from michigan
Michigan is the first release in Sufjan Stevens impressive stated ambition to write, record, and release an album for every state in the US. It is also an incredibly inspired history and commentary on the Great Lake State. The songs of this album take you on a tour and introduce you to Michigan and its people. Filtered through Sufjan, the trip is full of ups and downs, from bitter dispair to unabashed hopefullness.
Sufjan himself is from Michigan, and so it is fitting that he begins his project here. According to the bio on his official site he was abandoned on a porch in Detroit, and adopted by the surprised family that found him. Make no mistake, whether inspired by this inauspicious begining or not, Sufjan has since earned a masters in creative writing, and tought himself to play no less than 15 different instuments. Very well, I might add. This album is a musical and lyrical tour de force, and should be quickly sought out by anyone who might appreciate an intellectual, challenging album full of mellanchollie, yet hopeful music to keep company when sunken with the blues, driving through the backroads, or drinking wine in front of a nice fire.
The sound of the album comes off as folky overall, as evidenced by the slow acoustic ballads that permeate. Slow banjo lines and lush piano abound backed by a rich tapestry of percussion, vibes, woodwinds, organ, brass and more. The journey is slow and gentle, and this arrangement works well to give you time to think about the lyrical turns. The only time the album rocks, so to speak, is in Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!) which begins with almost a carnival feel. This is one of those tracks, along with Say Yes! To Michigan! which has an upbeat positive feel despite the lyrics in the former case.
The vocals are often delivered extremely subdued, but still conveying huge amounts of emotion. Sometimes Sufjan is backed by Elin and Megan Smith of The Danielson Famile on hamony and the results are mindblowing. A few chimy instrumental tracks punctuate certain points of the album, and while these are the least compelling tracks on the album, they still serve well to break up the mood of the album.
It may speak more about me than Sufjan, but my favorite songs seem to be saddest. The haunting tale of the ongoing troubles in Flint: Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)
Since the first of June, lost my job and lost my room.
I pretend to try, even if I try alone.
And the crushing story of an absent mother: Romulus
Our grandpa died in a hospital gown.
She didn't seem to care.
She smoked in her room and colored her hair.
And I was ashamed of her.
This is an album that is difficult to pick favorites on though. None of the 15 songs are bad, and most tracks actually exceed my personal definition of a "good" song. Am I getting across the impression that I really, really like this album? Because I do, very much. Even the packaging is nice, with some great rustic artwork depicting the flora and fauna of the rural Michigan painted by Laura Normandin. Full lyrics are included, though due to Sufjan's singing they are rarely needed to interpret his words.
Just go ahead and get this album if you can. If you do not find it rewarding, there is something bigger missing in your life ;)
back to reviewsstats
It is
Sunday May 18, 2008 8:02 am
This page served 5884 times
credits
This page, and all pages on this site were created and are maintained by Darren Kirby using valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS, and are ©copyright 2002 - 2008. The Penguin image was created by Tukka, and is used by permission. Inspiration for the look of this site was provided by Eric A. Meyer's CSS gallery. This website runs on Gentoo Linux. It is served by Apache. PHP and MySQL hold together the backend.