Rating

A-

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Expanded sound
  • Excellent lyrics and themes
  • Less filler than previous albums
Cons
  • Still some filler
  • Requires patience

Illinois (Sufjan Stevens)

Reviewed by:
Reviewed on:

Summary

An indie-folk masterpiece.

Images

Description

Sufjan Stevens, whose name I recently learned should be pronounced 'Soof-yan", not "Suhf-gin", is an interesting case. Since his first album, he's straddled the line between indie rock and folk, except for the bizarre electronica detour "Enjoy Your Rabbit”. Thankfully, instead of making another album of glitch and electronic noise, Stevens sticks close to the template set by Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State, the first in his quest to make albums based on all fifty states. Compositionally, Illinoise is similar, but the variety is greater, the filler is less obvious, and it's just a better album overall.

For those that haven't heard Michigan, Sufjan's goal with the state albums is to tell historically significant stories of each as well as touching on famous landmarks and important cities. He kicks off Illinoise with "Concerning the UFO Citing," a slow, beautiful piano-based ballad that sets a melancholy tone. The first excellent track of the album, "Come on! Feel the Illinoise" follows shortly afterward, and it's a nice showcase of Stevens's campy, horns-heavy, upbeat songs, which really sound much more like a more progressive Belle & Sebastian than folk. The next song, though, "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.", is a folk masterpiece and the best song on the album. It details the life of Illinois's most famous serial killer set to beautiful acoustic guitar and piano and Sufjan's raw voice.

The great tracks just keep coming; "Jacksonville", "Decatur", and "Chicago", an indie rocker, a banjo-based ballad, and an emo-tinged rocker, respectively, follow, and each is excellent. The variety on the album is really quite astonishing - I don't think I've ever heard an album since Queen's A Night at the Opera that successfully brings so much to the table. It's really something to behold. Stevens keeps reaching for new heights in new styles during the album's second half; "Metropolis" actually has some distorted electric guitars, and "Night Zombies!" has a rousing bass line reminiscent of disco. Unfortunately, the closer, "Out of Egypt", isn't too melodic and is just flat-out disappointing.

While they don't reach quite the level that the tracks on the first half of the album, they are still excellent and deserving of repeated listens. In fact, the whole album really needs a few listens to make sense. It's so ambitious - so startlingly original - that most will have a rough time really "understanding" it right off the bat. Furthermore, it's so rambling, so long, and occasionally so incongruous that there will be those who hate it. Still, it's one of the year's best and everyone should give it a listen.

Review Page Hits: 0 today (44 total)