Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension

[shagatha crustie]

Sad banjo-playing Christmas-obsessed LGBTQ folktronica nutter Sufjan Stevens releases his next full-length LP, The Ascension, on September 25th. This follows a trend of releasing an album every five years since 2005's modern classic Illinois, with electro-art-pop freakout The Age of Adz dropping in 2010 and haunting elegy to his deceased mother Carrie and Lowell in 2015. All of these would more than comfortably sit in my favourite albums released since 2000, and he's been no slouch in releasing quality material in between times.

The Ascension has been preceded by four singles, the latest of which, Sugar, came out today. The others:

America

My Rajneesh

Video Game

America and Rajneesh had me seriously hyped - two incredible compositions, if a little overlong, but he's always been prone to maximalism. Since then, for me at least, it's been slightly diminishing returns, with Video Game and Sugar a little less inspired and mining the same straightforward electro-pop seam as last year's Love Yourself EP. Nonetheless both are outrageously catchy.

Love the cover too:



Thoughts/feelings/general Sufjan discussion thread ahoy!

[spaghetamine]

Sounds not dissimilar to The Age of Adz, I dig it, woodwind arrangement in My Rajneesh is really something

[JaDanketies]

My Rajneesh is my standout too. I don't think he's interested in reaching the dizzying indie heights of Illinois or Carrie and Lowell any more. Which is fine. Pleased to be here for the journey.

[selectivememory]

"My Rajneesh" is lovely, though it's a b-side, not on the album itself. Reminds me a lot of some of the stuff on All Delighted People, in the first half of the song at least, before it goes a bit Age of Adz.

Of the songs from the album, I especially like "Video Game", but I'm not going to listen to any of the songs too much before I can hear the album as a whole. Another huge fan of him in general though, particularly Illinois. But quite happy if this album is going to be a more chilled out electronic kind of deal. 

[selectivememory]

Little bit underwhelmed by this album after a few listens. It starts out strongly, but I find myself getting bored with it after about six or seven songs, and the songs in the middle of the album just kind of blend into a dull sludge that I have trouble remembering much about by the time it finishes. Does pick up towards the end though, as the final few tracks are pretty good. Maybe I just need to give it some more time, but it certainly ain't the instant classic Carrie & Lowell was.

I think I was hoping for and maybe expecting more straightforward and simple pop songs like "Video Game" to fill up the album.

[shagatha crustie]

Agreed. I've listened about four times now. Every song has a really nice hook or something in it, but the sound palette is so samey and the production so dense that over the course of 80 minutes it all sort of cancels itself out into nothing. Reminds me in that respect of the last Tame Impala album.

[peanutbutter]

I think it says a lot about how much I think of this album that my main response to it was concern that he's having some kind of mental breakdown.

Loadsa neat enough ideas in it, and he's totally capable of making a good album with the kind of sound he's shooting for here, but he seems hell bent on making it as tedious as possible with the length and repetitiveness of it all.

Easily his worst major release since the first two I never even bothered listening to.



My Rajneesh was a pretty boring retread to me, can see why he left it out even if it's still better than most the stuff here.

[shagatha crustie]

I think it says a lot about how much I think of this album that my main response to it was concern that he's having some kind of mental breakdown.

In fairness, I felt like that about both The Age of Adz and Carrie and Lowell. The difference was, they were... good?

Adz particularly had this sort of intense drama of human vs electronics, with a lot of light and shade and some incredible moments of catharsis. This just feels... exhausted and exhausting. If it's saying anything it's hard to tell because the lyrics are swallowed up by the sound and really hard to parse or engage with, and none of the climactic moments really loom out in the necessary way.

The shame is that I think if nearly any of these songs had been released standalone I would have been impressed. Just as an album, they're very one-note.

[daf]

I preferred his earlier work with The Sunsets

[selectivememory]

The shame is that I think if nearly any of these songs had been released standalone I would have been impressed. Just as an album, they're very one-note.

Yeah, definitely feeling this. Although I think there are about five or six songs in the middle of the album that if they were cut entirely, it would be a lot better for it. I think up to and including "Die Happy", it's a pretty good album, and then it just takes a dive in quality for about 30 minutes and doesn't really pick up again until "Sugar".

There's no way this needed to be 80 minutes (unlike either Illinois or The Age of Adz, which both more than justified their lengths).