Sufjan Stevens and "Age of Adz"

Sufjan Stevens has always been ambitious with his music.  When he announced his "50 States" project, few believed the venture would be even remotely feasible.  As it turns out, Sufjan himself was of this mind - after all he would have been in his 80's at its completion - and so he fell off the radar for an extended period.

His reemergence this year with the surprise EP "All Delighted People" created a bit of a stir in indie music circles, as much for the fact he was again making his own music proper ie as a singer songwriter, as for any other reason.

It was traditional Sufjan Stevens music in a lot of ways - layers of melodic strings, gentle horns, and obvious folk influences accompanying his own emotive falsetto.  Little did we know what would be in store for us on his upcoming full length "The Age of Adz".

On first listen this project evinces the same sense of grandiosity and intricacies as previous successes "Michigan" and "Illinoise".  However, stylistically and production wise this album is very much a different animal.  Consequently, longtime fans and even newcomers may find this release a bit unnerving.  However, the fact that this album seems, on the surface, so different from previous ones, in no way detracts from its quality and sheer magnitude.

The album actually starts out with a relatively low key number.  "Futile Devices" hearkens back to the intimacy and minimalism of Seven Swans - think "The Dress Looks Nice on You" with the most subtle of metronome ticks backing the sweet guitar picking, simple piano tones and Sufjan's own warm vocal delivery.

However, its track 2, "Too Much" that really sets the cat amongst the pigeons.  Glitchy electro beats which would seemingly be more at home on a Crystal Castles or Autechre release, lead into layers of synth tones as Stevens sings "If I was a different man/If I had blood in my eyes/I could have read of your heart/I could have read of your heart".  The strings are still present - woven in and fluttering amongst the plethora of other sounds - and the bridge introduces woozy horns that make things that much more interesting.  And this is definitely an interesting album.

The electro-folk fusion continues with the title track "The Age of Adz". Booming horns and shrieking pan flutes seem to usher in an impending cataclysm as digitized whirrs and percussion back soaring choir harmonies.  And the spiritual flavour is still imminently present, revealed succinctly in the song's chorus "Its in your afterlife/This is the Age of Adz/Eternal living".

Stevens has said that he no longer feels he needs to make music to please other people.  Perhaps it is this indifference to the opinions of even his die hard fans is what makes his music so appealing.  After all its not so much a "Fuck you, I'll do what I want" mentality in the Kanye West sense, but an unwillingness to let whats popular, established, and expected dominate his own creative sensibilities.  Some people will be disappointed and even put off by this unabashed originality - so be it.  Radiohead took the same tack in the early 2000's and created what many critics consider to be the defining album of the last decade.  And its this type of risk taking coupled with a genuine talent that is indispensable to modern musics unabated evolution.  Like it or not, with "Age of Adz" Sufjan Stevens has created an album that, like the man himself, is uncompromising and unafraid, and album that leads us into the unknown.  And that is a very good thing.

Deerhunter heads home with Halcyon Digest

So its been out a solid week now (legally) and had a prelease streaming spot on NPR.com (now taken by Sufjan Stevens latest sonic adventure "The Age of Adz"), but Deerhunter's new full length "Halcyon Digest" is still revealing itself to me.

Unlike their previous efforts, this album seems much more cohesive, much more like an album made up of songs.  Albums like "Cryptograms" and even the brilliant "Microcastle" (although the latter was a step towards this cohesiveness) consisted of solid, rhythmic psych-pop nuggets, interspersed with ambient experiments that you could simply sit down and allow to absorb you.

And it was partly this juxtaposition of experimentation against hooky, reverb drenched pop songs that made Deerhunter (much like another of my favourite, though quite stylistically different groups, Califone) so interesting and appealing.  One second I would be swaying and humming along to Bradford Cox's deliberate, mantra like vocals, the next I would be taken in a completely different direction, allowing the pulsing rhythms of, say, "Slow Swords" to put me in almost a trance like state.

With "Halcyon Digest", the ambience and experimental touches are still there, they have just become a much more organic part of the songs themselves.  Tracks such as "Sailing" start out sounding almost cavernous, then add gentle guitar licks, guided by Cox's delicate and almost always contemplative lyrics.

And as has come to be expected with Deerhunter, the classic 50's/60's pop element is prevalent.  "Revival", the 1st single released prior to the album, is a perfect example of this - simple guitar grooves ride over a cantering percussion as Cox sings of the wonders and conflict of being born again: "I'm saved, I'm saved/and ooh, could you believe it/You won't regret if you choose to believe it/Freedom, silence always/All this darkness...always" - this leads into signature wordless melodies backing the instruments, as the song peaks marvelously.

The religious theme is continued on the other single from the album, "Helicopter".  Lovely delay and pedal effects along with clapping percussion provide a back drop to Cox again, as he asks: "Take my hand and pray with me/My final place in company/The Devil now has come for me/And helicopters circle the scene"

There are also hints of the Velvet Underground as on the track "Fountain Stairs" with guitarist Lockett Pundt taking lead vocal duties without missing a beat (He also has this responsibility on the brilliant "Desire Lines", debatably the albums stand-out moment).  And the pleasantly surprising introduction of Bill Oglesby's saxophone on "Coronado", rather than seeming foreign and out of place, fits seamlessly into a song you might expect to hear on a Spoon album.

It all adds up to a deeply satisfying endeavour in which a band who has always been unafraid to experiment, finds itself at the peak of its powers.  Newcomers will appreciate the quirks without being scared off, while long-time fans can rest assured that this album, rather than being a departure, is a refinement of what makes this band truly special.  With Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter has found its way home.