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.