Sufjan Stevens "Illinois" (2005)
Stevens had started a project which he'd planned to be 50 albums, one
for each state of the US. He started with his home state of Michigan
then moved onto Illinois. The project appears to have petered out,
with Stevens himself referring to it as just a publicity stunt. I wonder if
the truth is more that he burnt himself out.
He seems to have researched the album a bit beforehand, reading
histories of the state, reading books by authors from that state, engaging with locals online. This album is over an hour long and as it is he had
enough songs left over to release an album of out-takes, "The Avalanche"
the year after this. If he'd carried on in this way, that kind of
output would be like a fire hydrant of music.
I don't mind Sufjan, this album could have had a place in my heart if it
had been cut the hell down to say 40 or 45 minutes of music. However,
there are lots of enjoyable sounds here, with a pleasing range of
instrumentation. In particular "Chicago"
sounded familiar and its mix of horns, strings and layered vocals
tickled my music bone. Overall though, there's just way too much music
here and I don't gel with Sufjan's style enough to really fully get on
board for an hour and a quarter's-worth of music across 22 tracks.
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