Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

The Age of Adz, indie mastermind Sufjan Stevens' fifth proper album, could and probably should be described as an oddity for the multi-instrumentalist. The musical structures and lyrical content are a far cry from the wistful storytelling and soft acoustic overtones of 2005's Illinois. Rather, Stevens goes back to his early electronic works and unveils some deeply personal lyrics to create a chaotic record full of alternating pieces of lush instrumentation and minimalistic beauty.

The album's title (pronounced 'The Age of Odds') and cover art are taken from the works of paranoid schizophrenic sign painter and self-proclaimed prophet Royal Robertson, whose pieces are a smörgåsbord of apocalyptic images and poorly written slogans of misogyny. In an interview with Eyeweekly.com, Stevens describes Robertson's art as "...impulsive free-association, and the lyrics on The Age of Adz also follow that [impulse]." The lyrical content of Adz showcases the typically reserved Stevens at his most uncensored. This is most apparent on the track "I Want To Be Well," on which Sufjan exclaims, 'I'm not fuckin' around!' no less than 16 times. On "Futile Devices," Stevens croons to a lost love he couldn't express his feelings for in words. "Vesuvius" sees Stevens referring to himself directly, comparing some kind of deep sadness in him to being trapped under the famed volcano that destroyed Pompeii. His gift for lyricism really shines here, as he lets us into his deepest thoughts, singing 'Sufjan/the panic inside/the murdering ghost that you cannot ignore.' Don't think that every song on Adz is dark and depressing though. The title track is an optimistic piece on Stevens' belief in eternal life, albeit not in the traditional sense, and the closer "Impossible Soul" is a massive opus about moving on after a tragic event (and Sufjan uses Auto-Tune for a spell, so it's gotta be good).

Musically, this is some of Sufjan's best work to date. His talent as a composer is obviously apparent as you hear everything from chaotic orchestral fracases ("The Age of Adz") to soft electro-pop ("I Walked"). The harmonics are absolutely gorgeous, and Sufjan's voice towers above it all, conveying his deepest thoughts to you over majestic instrumentation and choral background singing. Sometimes it toes the line between majestic and overly bombastic, but usually stays on the correct side. Besides the first track, you won't hear much of the soft balladry that made him an indie darling in the mid-2000s, but his gift for incredible compositional songwriting is almost enough to make you forget Michigan and Illinois even existed.

The flaws here mostly lie in the middle track, the grossly over-composed "Now That I'm Older." This track just tries a bit too hard, with a few too many angelic choruses and harps, it just sounds muddy and frankly boring. This is the only blip in an otherwise exceptional album, but what else do you expect from Sufjan Stevens? Here's hoping his next work can be as incredibly creative as this one. 4.5/5.

I Want To Be Well - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO17WyaU2mE

Vesuvius - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTsDcjHj54M

Too Much - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0g7R3xqdcM

Hello there

If you're reading this, chances are you're a friend of mine, and you may have read my inspired albeit short-lived blog from 2008, which was discontinued mostly because of unfortunate timing; school got real fuckin' hard as I was hitting my stride. Not to say things haven't changed, but I feel more equipped to handle both workloads now so I'm starting with a literal blank slate. In this blog I will review new (and perhaps as yet unreleased?) albums that I have been waiting eagerly to hear. Thus my reviews might be biased towards my expectations, so if that happens sorry. I will also post concert reviews and random musings that I feel are interesting enough to write about. I hope you all enjoy, and if you don't, you have my permission to stop reading and/or slap me in the face either verbally or physically (I prefer verbally) and I may or may not take your opinions into consideration.

As luck would have it, I have something to talk about already! I have found that one of the nice things about attending a large (read: HUGE) university is that there's a nice student activity budget that the good people at the activities board use mostly wisely to bring in all sorts of notable performance artists, including musicians, and sometimes for free! Iron & Wine came to the school last night, and Mr. Beam put on a great show; I've never seen a single performer have so much control over an audience. But his performance is not what I came to write about, it was the performance (or lack thereof) of the audience during the opening act, a soft-spoken man named Daniel Martin Moore who performed some equally soft songs on acoustic guitar.

Now, I understand that people came to see Iron & Wine, and thus they may have gotten a tad impatient during the opening performance, but the level of respect being shown to this poor guy was just dismal. I'm not speaking from experience, but I'd imagine being an opening act is pretty tough as it is, and when nearly the entire crowd is talking over your music, you're making the guy feel completely un-cared about, and is that a good thing to do? Obviously not. If you think your little conversations are more important than giving someone who is trying his best to entertain you half an hour of your time, you should probably just stop coming to concerts and ruining the experience for the people who actually want to listen. They even gave you guys wristbands so you could re-enter the room, if you need to carry on a conversation with your friends that badly, just walk outside and do it, don't fucking ruin it for everyone who wants to listen to the music.

I hope I can give you something interesting to read at least weekly, for now here's a song I've been listening to a lot lately, off the new Deerhunter album Halcyon Digest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mBSOtdOjoc