When I first heard Sufjan Stevens' 2001 album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, I was thrown off kilter. Accustomed to the flitting and storybook epics of Illinoise, the modem dial-up screechings, white noise hums and discordant yet poignant welding of orchestral melodies with computerized blips exposed a menagerie of emotional power. The clear-cut and linear storytelling of Illinoise and Michigan stepped back stylistically to reveal the strengths of Sufjan as an emotive composer. Even now it takes all my will power to not feel the chest-tightening surges of antagonistic mischief and lighthearted reflection in my hair follicles as I listen that album.
Nine years after Enjoy Your Rabbit, the latest tracks by Sufjan seek and accomplish the balance between words and music as the cathartic catalyst. The composer and the storyteller collaborated in his mind to produce deep, melodic and sweeping songs that marry the classical to the electronic. Two tracks have been made public: "I Walked" is the one I have above for your listening pleasure, and "Too Much" can be downloaded at Sufjan Stevens' site for his forthcoming album The Age of Adz. They both have a similar cohesion in style and tone, which I personally hope is well-established throughout his first full album in five years, not counting his Christmas box set and multimedia project "The BQE."
The Age of Adz makes its legal emergence on October 12 through Asthmatic Kitty Records, and if you can't wait the 29 days til the album releases, check out the All Delighted People EP here, released not long ago by Sufjan for only 5 bucks.