365 – New Music Daily

Indie legend (supposedly? I had never heard of him) Sufjan Steven’s critically acclaimed 2005 release Illinois certainly sets the trend for a lot of the sounds that you here out of Indie Rock today, and also seemingly set a vocal trend as well as you will listen to Sufjan and it will remind you of that shit you hear from your friend who claims they listen to Indie music (what even is Indie? It means nothing).

Also, obviously, this album is conceptual. You’ll see from the song titles, but it’s about Illinois. Shocker.

This album is, and while this is not to imply a lack of cohesion, a bit all over the place (note – I am going to do the thing where I cite specific songs. This is a necessary note for this album because the song titles are ridiculous) with more somber indie rock cuts (John Wayne Gacy Jr., The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts), some folk cuts (Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step-Mother! (this is me in parenthesis saying what the fuck is that title)), some grandiose compositions (Chicago), and some absolutely gorgeous, ethereal songs (Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland, Illinois).

I will certainly understand if this is not your cup of tea – it’s not exactly mine, but I do appreciate it and think it’s great in some points of this record. It also loses me a bit with some of the songwriting – even on some of my favorite songs, or the aforementioned Step Mother song:

The sound of the engines and the smell of the grain
We go riding on the abolition grain train
Stephen A. Douglas was a great debater
But Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator

Doesn’t exactly roll off the Tongue, Sufjan. And while this album is fantastic sonically – there are also some risks that are taken that can sound either like the soundtrack for the soundtrack carnival scene (or any carnival, but Sandlot one just feels applicable here for some reason) or that goes into the brown note (try to listen to the first full minute of Seer’s Tower with headphones). Overall though, this album is admirable – and falls simultaneously in a good tier, a not for me but maybe for you tier, and a maybe for you but not for me tier.

Favorite songs (this is gonna be a doozy): Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois, Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream), Jacksonville, Chicago, Casimir Pulaski Day, The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!, They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!