New Sufjan Stevens EP available now

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cobl04 said:
Yes, it is wonderful. I saw him live in Sydney last year, flew there from Melbourne with a girl I really liked who did not reciprocate feelings, and when he played that song it absolutely crushed me, in the best ways.
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Very Nietzschean of you to find beauty in the void of suffering. Wish I could do the same with my current situation. :lol:

Live Blue Bucket is transcendent. As it was escalating toward the end, I remember thinking, "if this is what death feels like, I'd be fine with it."
 
Djohariah.
Good Lord, what a song.
Technically "All Delighted People" is an EP, but I think of it as an album and I can confidently say it's my favorite.


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I've still never seen Bad. I've still never seen Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl. I've still never seen Casimir Pulaski Day. Fuck.

Otherwise, that was one of the best shows I've ever seen. I don't like Age of Adz, at all, but those tracks are necessary to balancing the existential terror of the Carrie & Lowell material and the live arrangements are way better. I usually find Too Much annoying, but it slots in great. Vesuvius is still kind of a slog for me but the visuals were nice. I Want to Be Well was as good as has been described.

Impossible Soul--->Chicago was utterly incredible. Same with Come On! Feel the Illinoise! which deserves to be held in the same regard as Chicago, honestly. I Should Have Known Better and Fourth of July were beefed up with amazing outros. Concerning the UFO Sighting was a nice setlist surprise.

Only complaints were Sufjan ending 10 minutes before the curfew (this is actually pretty lame of him, it made the whole show feel rushed) and replacing Casimir Pulaski Day with a fun but not overly great cover of Kiss. I'm not a fan of artists doing covers in general, so it's nothing against Sufjan. He meant well and it fit the vibe of the show.

Everything else was sublime. The Hollywood Bowl just prevents anything spontaneous from happening because of the curfew and wine and cheese crowds.
 
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Adding to my last post, I think he seems to be attempting to transition out of the Carrie & Lowell era with a light touch and sense of humor. The current show is very powerful, skillfully sequenced and choreographed. It's veering towards the positive end of his songwriting as well, which makes sense considering this portion of the tour has been so festival heavy.

Sufjan claimed this was the last show of the tour, so it serves to reason that we were given a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and he seemed to imply that despite the thematic heft of his writing, he wanted to keep the show moving. The Carrie & Lowell tour's first couple of legs were likely very taxing on him emotionally and though I'm disappointed that I missed out on one of my all-time favorite albums being played more or less in full, I can understand what he's been doing with the setlist as of late.
 
LemonMelon said:
I've still never seen Bad. I've still never seen Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl. I've still never seen Casimir Pulaski Day. Fuck.

Otherwise, that was one of the best shows I've ever seen. I don't like Age of Adz, at all, but those tracks are necessary to balancing the existential terror of the Carrie & Lowell material and the live arrangements are way better. I usually find Too Much annoying, but it slots in great. Vesuvius is still kind of a slog for me but the visuals were nice. I Want to Be Well was as good as has been described.

Impossible Soul--->Chicago was utterly incredible. Same with Come On! Feel the Illinoise! which deserves to be held in the same regard as Chicago, honestly. I Should Have Known Better and Fourth of July were beefed up with amazing outros. Concerning the UFO Sighting was a nice setlist surprise.

Only complaints were Sufjan ending 10 minutes before the curfew (this is actually pretty lame of him, it made the whole show feel rushed) and replacing Casimir Pulaski Day with a fun but not overly great cover of Kiss. I'm not a fan of artists doing covers in general, so it's nothing against Sufjan. He meant well and it fit the vibe of the show.

Everything else was sublime. The Hollywood Bowl just prevents anything spontaneous from happening because of the curfew and wine and cheese crowds.
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Nice to see just admit that you don't like a great album rather than your previous skirting around the subject. ;) All though "at all" seems very strong. I do not understand how you cannot love Vesuvius, at the three shows I saw this year he did it and it was a huge highlight each time.

Honestly I don't think Chicago would rank in my personal top 10 for Sufjan. It is a great song but there are so many others I've come to love more than it, and Feel the Illinoise is one of them, awesome song, one I haven't got in the four times I've seen him live. I'm immensely jealous of that plus the Adz tracks (although the title track is a lot better than Too Much) but I can at least attest to the Carrie & Lowell tracks being stellar.

Casimir Pulaski Day isn't reeeeally a regular I don't think? I've heard it a couple of times, it's lovely though. Incredible song. However I'd be much more upset at not getting Blue Bucket of Gold; up until this recent pivot out of C&L it was closing the main sets. It's over 10 minutes and is indescribably awesome, as others here can attest to.

LemonMelon said:
Adding to my last post, I think he seems to be attempting to transition out of the Carrie & Lowell era with a light touch and sense of humor. The current show is very powerful, skillfully sequenced and choreographed. It's veering towards the positive end of his songwriting as well, which makes sense considering this portion of the tour has been so festival heavy.

Sufjan claimed this was the last show of the tour, so it serves to reason that we were given a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and he seemed to imply that despite the thematic heft of his writing, he wanted to keep the show moving. The Carrie & Lowell tour's first couple of legs were likely very taxing on him emotionally and though I'm disappointed that I missed out on one of my all-time favorite albums being played more or less in full, I can understand what he's been doing with the setlist as of late.
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Another reason I'm sad to miss it. I reviewed his C&L shows here, and they were the last ones in that format. They took a lot out of him, I'm pretty sure he broke down in tears at least once on all three nights, which is no surprise given how personal the songs are. But then his encore was entirely acoustic, lots of self-deprecating chatter - "I write the setlist each night to Songs in the Key of Life ... the irony is not lost on me ... this is Songs in the Key of Death". And he spoke of his mother's death now leading to a period where he is happier and healthier than ever.

Will be really, really interesting to see where he goes next.
 
cobl04 said:
Nice to see just admit that you don't like a great album rather than your previous skirting around the subject. ;) All though "at all" seems very strong. I do not understand how you cannot love Vesuvius, at the three shows I saw this year he did it and it was a huge highlight each time.

Honestly I don't think Chicago would rank in my personal top 10 for Sufjan. It is a great song but there are so many others I've come to love more than it, and Feel the Illinoise is one of them, awesome song, one I haven't got in the four times I've seen him live. I'm immensely jealous of that plus the Adz tracks (although the title track is a lot better than Too Much) but I can at least attest to the Carrie & Lowell tracks being stellar.

Casimir Pulaski Day isn't reeeeally a regular I don't think? I've heard it a couple of times, it's lovely though. Incredible song. However I'd be much more upset at not getting Blue Bucket of Gold; up until this recent pivot out of C&L it was closing the main sets. It's over 10 minutes and is indescribably awesome, as others here can attest to.

Another reason I'm sad to miss it. I reviewed his C&L shows here, and they were the last ones in that format. They took a lot out of him, I'm pretty sure he broke down in tears at least once on all three nights, which is no surprise given how personal the songs are. But then his encore was entirely acoustic, lots of self-deprecating chatter - "I write the setlist each night to Songs in the Key of Life ... the irony is not lost on me ... this is Songs in the Key of Death". And he spoke of his mother's death now leading to a period where he is happier and healthier than ever.

Will be really, really interesting to see where he goes next.
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Re: Chicago, I don't want to say it's one of those situations where you had to be there, because that diminishes the inherent quality of the song, but it was fucking massive in 2006 and into 2007. That was my and many others' favorite song for a time and hearing it in era-defining films like Little Miss Sunshine really nailed the point home that my generation of music listeners had found an anthem of sorts with that one.

That being said, hearing it tonight, my arm around Ashley, the two of us with tears in our eyes listening to a song that had been a soundtrack to so many significant life decisions as Sufjan sings about the mistakes he's made in his own life ("and continue to make!", he blurted out with self-deprecation) - that's a moment I'll not soon forget. It was a marker of time.

And you know what's really great? It wasn't that acoustic version he was doing last year, which I enjoy but feel robs the sensation of movement, excitement and progress out of the song. Tonight it was an explosive, life-affirming take that slotted in perfectly alongside Impossible Soul, similar to this one from Coachella earlier this year:



Whatever artistic choices Sufjan makes in the future, I'm happy that he's come out of this dark time in a better place. I want him to be well and he certainly seemed to be tonight. This was his first ever performance at the Hollywood Bowl, a large venue and major historical landmark, as well as the last show of an exhausting tour and he was absolutely beaming. I thank him for one of the best, most personal folk albums I've heard this decade, but it's time to move on to something else now.

When Ashley has a second, I'm sure she'll pop by this thread and add her two cents. I know she's already placed it among her five favorite concerts ever. Between a kickass performance by Kurt Vile (Wakin on a Pretty Day! Goldtone! Pretty Pimpin!) and Sufjan absolutely killing it, that was definitely one of the better overall bills I've seen.
 
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I can't say I'm huge on the song Chicago, but the version I saw last year was spectacular: an acid jazz type freak-out that emerged out of a wild, extended synth solo.
 
LemonMelon said:
Re: Chicago, I don't want to say it's one of those situations where you had to be there, because that diminishes the inherent quality of the song, but it was fucking massive in 2006 and into 2007. That was my and many others' favorite song for a time and hearing it in era-defining films like Little Miss Sunshine really nailed the point home that my generation of music listeners had found an anthem of sorts with that one.

That being said, hearing it tonight, my arm around Ashley, the two of us with tears in our eyes listening to a song that had been a soundtrack to so many significant life decisions as Sufjan sings about the mistakes he's made in his own life ("and continue to make!", he blurted out with self-deprecation) - that's a moment I'll not soon forget. It was a marker of time.

And you know what's really great? It wasn't that acoustic version he was doing last year, which I enjoy but feel robs the sensation of movement, excitement and progress out of the song. Tonight it was an explosive, life-affirming take that slotted in perfectly alongside Impossible Soul, similar to this one from Coachella earlier this year:
Click to expand...

:up: that's cool. I don't think I'd ever really heard the song until last year when I started listening to his music so I've never had that connection with it.

iron yuppie said:
I can't say I'm huge on the song Chicago, but the version I saw last year was spectacular: an acid jazz type freak-out that emerged out of a wild, extended synth solo.
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I'm extremely jealous. I've only seen nice-enough tame acoustic versions, which is probably partly responsible for my indifference towards it.
 
I've admittedly never listened to a live Sufjan show before and I want to hear a good one. Any recommendations for good bootlegs or YouTube recordings?
thanks.


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New album out June 9 :hyper:

Previously-teased Planetarium record (in order: Sufjan Stevens / Nico Muhly (???) / Bryce Dessner / James McAlister (Sufjan's C&L drummer) is coming out June 9.

01 Neptune
02 Jupiter
03 Halley’s Comet
04 Venus
05 Uranus
06 Mars
07 Black Energy
08 Sun
09 Tides
10 Moon
11 Pluto
12 Kuiper Belt
13 Black Hole
14 Saturn
15 In the Beginning
16 Earth
17 Mercury

First taste is an absolute banger. Sufjan sings, I'm assuming he will be singer on the whole thing, I don't know who Nico Muhly is. It's called "Saturn", it's up on streaming services. It sounds like Eiffel 65, but not shit.

:hyper::hyper::hyper:
 
Also played that night were UFO Sighting, Fatherless in Ypsilanti, Abraham, John Wayne Gacy Jnr, To Be Alone With You and Chicago, wish they were also on it, but I digress.
 
I strongly disagree, but I think it's easier to listen to front-to-back than Illinoise.

I got Romulus at a show last year, that was incredible. What I would have given for Vito's Ordination Song...
 
Michigan is more evocative of place, I think. It might just be that Michigan and Ohio, my home state, are very similar places, so I feel a lot of those songs poignantly.
 
Wait, is this a digital release only? I can't seem to find that info.
 
When it comes to Sufjan, I own Chicago and I Want To Be Well and I saw him play an incredible set at Panorama Festival last year (he played in between The National and Kendrick Lamar, a glorious stretch of music). But I haven't really dived into his catalog yet.

Where should I start?
 
I'd say Michigan. It captures a lot of his aesthetic without being too harrowing. Carrie & Lowell is one of my favorite albums ever, but it is a draining listen.
 
I would start with Michigan too, so that you can build up to Illinois. Listen to them together or very near each other to appreciate the development that took place.

Personally, I like the two albums about equally, but for different reasons. Michigan is a more consistently enjoyable listening experience, whereas I'm more likely to have a sublime moment of clarity listening to Illinois.
 
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