Since the 2003 release of his third album MICHIGAN and 2004s SEVEN SWANS, Sufjan Stevens has been recognized as on of the most talented songwriter-performers in independent music. ILLINOIS, the follow-up to MICHIGAN in his "50 States" project, again demonstrates his ability to realize a music vision through his moving songs, musicianship (he plays 25 instrums on the album), production and arrangments. While some musical and literary influences are felt and heard, Stevens' total involvement in every phase of the project results in a thoroughly unique result. On his second meditation on an American state, a 22-track anthematic tone poem for Illinois, Stevens weaves variegated musical styles and instrumental textures into a tapestry of person famous, infamous and anonymous, and places iconic, obscure and abandoned. Love, loss, faith, the unique character of place, encounters with spiritual stength in unexpected places, incomprehensible horror and celebratory odes to the rise and fall of human works are among the themes Stevens visits in his ode to the Prairie State.
1 Concerning the Ufo Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
2 The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish An Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience But You're Gonna Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight
3 Come on! Feel the Illinoise!: Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition/Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream
4 John Wayne Gacy, JR
5 Jacksonville
6 A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But for Very Good Reasons
7 Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!
8 One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' for the Pullman
9 Chicago
10 Casimir Pulaski Day
11 To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have An Idea Concerning Your Predicament
12 The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
13 Prairie Fire That Wanders About
14 A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze
15 The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
16 They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!
17 Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell
18 In This Temple As in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth
19 The Seer's Tower
20 The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders: Part I: The Great Frontier/Part II: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now
21 Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few
22 Out of Egypt, Into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals As I Run
Since the 2003 release of his third album MICHIGAN and 2004s SEVEN SWANS, Sufjan Stevens has been recognized as on of the most talented songwriter-performers in independent music. ILLINOIS, the follow-up to MICHIGAN in his "50 States" project, again demonstrates his ability to realize a music vision through his moving songs, musicianship (he plays 25 instrums on the album), production and arrangments. While some musical and literary influences are felt and heard, Stevens' total involvement in every phase of the project results in a thoroughly unique result. On his second meditation on an American state, a 22-track anthematic tone poem for Illinois, Stevens weaves variegated musical styles and instrumental textures into a tapestry of person famous, infamous and anonymous, and places iconic, obscure and abandoned. Love, loss, faith, the unique character of place, encounters with spiritual stength in unexpected places, incomprehensible horror and celebratory odes to the rise and fall of human works are among the themes Stevens visits in his ode to the Prairie State.
