Why Sufjan Is Still Great And Should Make Another Album

June 14th, 2010 by admin

It’s been almost five years since Sufjan Stevens released his masterpiece, 2005’s Come on Feel the Illinoise. Five years, man.

I first heard the album while riding back from a professor’s summer barbeque. My friend had just bought the CD (the one with Superman on the front, so he’s probably sold it on e-baby by now for a pretty penny). It was a perfect, soft summer night as we drove through the backwoods of Grant, Michigan. I remember the first of many oddly named tracks, “Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland,” breathing out the speakers. Simple, sustained piano chords that sounded as otherworldly to me as aliens perked my ears right up. Not once throughout the entire 70+ minutes of the album did my horrible attention span wander. I was utterly captivated. It was better than his prior 50 states album, 2003’s excellent Greetings from Michigan. Five years later, Come on Feel the Illinoise remains my favorite album of all time.

That September, just two months after the release of Illinoise, I saw Sufjan Stevens and the “Illinoisemakers” perform at Calvin College. The show sold out in a week. He was playing sold out shows all across the country and gathering more critical acclaim than any other recording artist that year. Slant Magazine called him “one of the most vital voices in music today.”

My friends and I arrived at Calvin at around 4:00 PM. Sufjan was speaking in one of the classrooms and doing a Q & A, so we attended that. I remember years before when I first saw Sufjan. He was playing at Lemonjellos, a tiny, tiny coffee house in Holland, MI, just across the road from where Sufjan attended college. That night he performed nervously and awkwardly, with just a banjo and acoustic guitar. I chatted with him afterwards and he was just as nervous and awkward, though very kind. A few years later, in 2005, he stood in that classroom with confidence. He looked happy and comfortable. We spoke afterwards for about ten minutes. He was much less nervous than before but no less kind. After the Q & A my friends and I headed outside to get in line for the concert.

That line stretched for what looked like miles. Others were sitting on the grass. The sun was out. It was one of those days where summer was still hanging around a bit but autumn was starting to seep into the air. I saw plenty of people I recognized. Old college friends, new friends, and I even met a few new friends. Everyone was excited and in a good mood. I know they too were captivated by Illinoise.

The doors opened at about 7 PM, though the concert wouldn’t begin until about 8 PM. There wasn’t an empty seat in the house but it didn’t feel packed. Rather, it felt like a great big hug or something. As I looked around, I noticed that it was one of the more diverse crowds I had ever seen at a concert. There were young people, middle-aged people, black, white, even a few grandparents. I saw the owner of the local record store sitting in the back. A couple dear friends from Detroit had traveled all the way to see the show.

Then the show began.

The person who introduced Sufjan said to the crowd, “Listen, everyone…turn off your cell phones. Do it right now. Because what you are about to see is gonna be magical.” He was right.

Now it’s 2010. Sufjan’s label, Asthmatic Kitty, has a roster of nearly 30 artists. Many of them have received notable acclaim. Shara Worden, playing under the moniker My Brightest Diamond, has become quite famous. Sufjan has also done production work for several artists, been a guest musician on some albums (ie. The National’s Boxer), and recently released The BQE, a commissioned album and DVD centered on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. However, he hasn’t released a follow up to Illinoise. Several recent interviews suggest that he may not even do so.

If you think about it, Sufjan has barely been in the spotlight for his own music since mid 2007. Aside from a surprise tour he did with Cryptacize last fall, most of the concerts he’s done have either been with other artists or side projects. He’s done production work for several other artists on his label and contributed a track to the fairly recent Dark Was The Night compilation. Aside from that, the Sufjan Stevens we saw decked out in American flags and performing songs with titles such as “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! AAAH!!!” has been mostly, eventually totally, absent.

Why the reluctance? Based on interviews, he’s just grown a bit tired of it all. As he stated in a recent interview, “What’s the point of making music anymore? I feel that the album no longer has a stronghold or has any real bearing anymore. The physical format itself is obsolete; the CD is obsolete and the LP is kinda nostalgic. So, I think the album is suffering and that’s how I’ve created–I work with these conceptual albums in the long-form. And I’m wondering, what’s the value of my work once these forms are obsolete and everyone’s just downloading music?”

While Sufjan did help build the kind of sound that “indie” has become, and though Asthmatic Kitty has been important in re-defining what it means to be a label, a great deal has changed since Illinoise. More quickly, albums are being overshadowed by MP3s. Physical CDs are barely selling. This is something that Sounds Good Ink has written about before. Furthermore, independent music is becoming just as marketable of a medium as Top 40 radio. The kind of grandiose, thematic music Sufjan made in the past just may not fit well with the fast-growing iPod culture as it stretches into the future. Though many of us are just dying for some new output from Stevens, perhaps it’s wise that he’s been putting it off.

But more than the medium, perhaps the particular sound that Sufjan was instrumental in forming has lost much of its momentum over the past year or two. Perhaps (and this is mere speculation) he felt trapped by that particular sound he helped create. Really, Sufjan has in many ways been a poster boy for what we now call “indie.” His particular look, sound, and his whole persona (ie. literary hipster, grad student turned musician, etc.) have all lent a great deal to 21st Century indie culture. If Sufjan had become a writer instead of a songwriter as he had initially intended, then indie music would look and sound different than it does now, that’s for sure.

Even if my speculations in no way mirror the reasons for his absence, the fact that he has kept out of the spotlight will probably be more of a blessing than a curse, for him and his many devoted fans. After all, the whole “indie” scene really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. We make fun of Top 40 radio and boy bands, but, if you think about it, “indie” has become just as superficial as the late 90s boy bands, nu-metalers, and Brittany Spears wannabes. Truth be told, people are getting sick of it. Several musical journalists and critics have written about this, most notably Paste Magazine in their cover article “Is Indie Dead?” And, really, how could you not get tired of the too-precious ball of quirk we now call “indie.” Too many bands use toy pianos, wear scarves, and have beards. The women are all beautiful, but most of them wear the same hats and have the same haircuts. The music has lost most of the rock and punk aesthetic that lie at the roots of indie. The “hipster” label now brings up just as many (and well-deserved) negative connotations as labels like “douchebag,” “tool,” and “jock.” It’s fucked up, really, that the word “indie”-the shortened form of “independent”-now signifies a crowd full of people who all look the same and listen to bands that all sound the same. It all sounds so ethereal, orchestral, cute, and, as On her blog Monitor Mix, Carrie Brownstein accurately described it, “toothless.” And, notice how she links much of this “toothless” movement to Sufjan.

I’ve heard plenty of listeners and music fans complain about Sufjan directly by name. I’ve heard people who once loved him say they now think his music is too precious. Others have been annoyed that he’s become the poster boy for the whole “Christian Hipster” crowd. I guarantee that, when I paste this Pop-Rox article title on Facebook, I’ll get a lot of snarky comments from people who don’t like him and/or his music.

If Sufjan comes back, his new work is gonna have to change as much as the scene he helped start (though I’m assuming he wouldn’t want to take credit for this). As much as I love a lot of the music released over the past decade that has been labeled “indie,” I too am ready for change. As an unnamed friend of mine stated on a pissy, but not inaccurate, Facebook status: “Indie Rock Sucks.”

Still, I hope Sufjan releases a new album. It would be great to have another addition to the 50 States project but, if he does release something new, I very much doubt it will be tied to a state. Further, given the fact that it has been five years, it’s silly to assume that it will just sound like all the other indie crap flooding the internet. He’s probably learned some new tricks, some new songwriting methods, and listened to some different artists

But again, I hope he doesn’t jettison all the stuff that he’s done so well since the beginning. There’s the narrative structure of his songs, the orchestral and complicated arrangements, and the smart lyrics and wide range of emotions they cover. There’s also the fact that he’s not punk, and this is one of the aspects of his work for which he should be applauded. Hey, I love punk as much as the next person. Its DIY aesthetic is the backbone of independent music. At the same time, there is something to be said for artists like Sufjan. He makes music that most of us couldn’t make without lots of musical training and practice. But what is wrong with that? And why does music have to be technically simple in order to inspire us with a DIY ethic? We shouldn’t fault a musician for raising the bar musically. And if it inspires someone to take lessons, practice their balls off, and become a better musician as a result, then god bless it. Finally, let’s not ignore the fact that every single “Best Albums Of…” list from every publication worth a damn has put Come on Feel the Illinoise… in the high ranks since its release, several times in the top ten, and several other times in the #1 spot.

These are all characteristics that we’d be foolish to throw out, especially in light of the ridiculous shit that still blasts out of the airwaves. We can bitch about indie music all we want, and for good reasons. But let’s not forget that Top 40 music still has insipid lyrics, still focuses on one or two fleeting emotions, still is bereft of any thoughtfulness whatsoever, and, unfortunately, still has enormous influence the world over. Sufjan’s work has gone against this. Regardless of whether you like his music and regardless of the fact that some of the negative attributes of indie have ties to him, we are still very lucky to have him. As journalist Michael Azerrad stated on his blog, “Bring on exquisite musicians like Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear, among others, none of whose music sounds stereotypically punk in the slightest…These musicians and their work exemplify some of the best aspects of our culture: intelligence, resourcefulness, original thinking, craft.”

Well put. And if the fates are especially, uncharacteristically kind today and Sufjan ends up reading this, then here’s a message for you: Please make another album.
-Justin Stover

Note: Shortly after writing this article I found out via Pitchfork that a new Sufjan album is in the works, though he hasn’t said anything about it. You can read about it here. In it Bryce Dessner of The National (who will be playing on much of the album) states, “It’s going to be incredible. It’s going to probably blow people’s minds.” He also says that “the new work won’t sound like the music Stevens has released in the past…”

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