I am 94% sure that Sufjan Stevens is my favorite musician. Of all musicians. And that was a bit hard for me to accept because I listen to such a plethora of music that I've always deemed it impossible to pick a favorite.
A couple of years ago, he came out with an album, Michigan, which I plan on getting for Christmas because I've only heard one song off of it and I have that much faith in him. He then made a statement that he was going to start the 50 States Project where he'd put out an entire concept album for every state. His second album in the series, Come and Feel the Illinoise! is my favorite of his albums. Songs like the Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us! and John Wayne Gacy, Jr. and Casimir Pulaski Day can wreck me emotionally. His most famous song, Chicago, is gorgeous and somehow appeals to a mainstream audience. The tour he went on for the album included a small orchestra and an intricate stage while he and all of the musicians involved wore wings. The album had so many demos that he wished he could put on the album that he made a separate album for the outtakes.
After Illinois, it is disputed whether he decided it would be too difficult to put out FIFTY CONCEPT ALBUMS or that the entire time the project was a joke.
Right now, I've had his song Christmas Unicorn stuck in my head for the whole weekend. He has two (x) (x) dual-part christmas albums out with exactly 100 songs in all. In these albums, he doesn't usually use the expected, classic christmas songs but instead writes his own. If he does the classic songs, he changes them drastically. Not for these christmas albums, but for the presidential election last year he released a version of the Star Spangled Banner that is close to unrecognizable.
Either way, I feel like he's one of the most intelligent, genius lyricists and all out musicians of this generation.
1 comment:
Still can't get over how his name is Soof-yon, not Suff-jen.
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