Sufjan Stevens makes songs the length of EPs, and EPs the length of albums, so after a few listens you realize it’s hard to get in a few listens of the nearly hour and a half long Age Of Adz. But is it worth the extra time and the extra money? Yes.
This is one of Stevens’ most immediate records. Past albums dealt with history, personal, public, familial. Here the first person present tense is everywhere. For instance, the pretty opener “Futile Devices,” where Stevens sings about love (“Saying it out loud is hard / So I won’t say it at all”). He hasn’t been this straightforward since Seven Swans. But even the recording decisions feel more streamlined, from “Too Much” on: It’s the scattered electronic rhythms of Enjoy Your Rabbit attached to the orchestral flourishes of his more recent albums. Again, this decision feels more real, all the squelching and scattered beats sound more organic than past albums, the way they flutter and burst sounds like nerves and anxiety being worked out.
The line “Lover, will you look at me now?” opens “I Walked.” Once again it’s present, tense, Stevens’ shaky falsetto sounding shaky for reasons other than it being hard to sing in falsetto. “Lover” is used often on The Age Of Adz. But it’s hard to know what this means about Stevens’ present; his past albums have told us he had a difficult childhood. You can say that this album, and its speaker, is dealing with love, guilt, rejection– and crochet (one of Stevens’s many quaint hobbies, and one that gets a fair bit of attention on the record). On “Get Real Get Right,” he sings, “I’ve lost my conscience, I’ve lost my shame,” but he hasn’t lost all his shame, because there’s only one person you get right with. Of course many other lines seem to be about outsider artist Royal Robertson, the stated inspiration behind the album. So that’s why it’s once again hard to make guesses about who Stevens is addressing in these songs, or whether these lyrics are spoken from Stevens’ perspective, Robertson’s, or Stevens’ perspective disguised as Robertson’s.
It’s easier, though, to talk about how “Get Real Get Right,” with its weird cascading verses, is kind of ugly. Because it’s great that The Age Of Adz isn’t very pretty, or at least, isn’t as pretty as Michigan or Illinois. The high-pitched guitar on 25-minute closer “Impossible Soul,” the cursing and Autotune? Ugly. And that’s a welcome change. Unrelenting prettiness, wispy precious moments were the best and worst part of Michigan and Illinois. Maybe you think that horn flourishes and triumphant string swells are Stevens’ biggest gift; this album chips away at the decorative edges, but still has songs that are melodic, huge, and sound personal while keeping that little bit of distance that lends Stevens his inscrutable aura. That last part means that far from being done with music, he’s probably got a lot more hidden away.
The Age Of Adz is out 10/12 via Asthmatic Kitty. You can stream it below, courtesy of NPR, until release day:
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Very well put. “I’m not fuckin around” as a lyric seems to sum up the album in general.
Huh. I was trying to post this:
bad typographying
Actually wordcore’s type is quite nice and better than yours. Typographin’ is my job, so…
pretty stellar record, title track is my personal favorite
this is a fantastic album. vesuvius and the auto tune section of impossible soul are up there with anything else he’s done. i think this will be a polarizing album for people, but at the end of a day we have a truly curious artist who spent a long time making a well thought out collection of songs. we can’t ask much more from the music scene.
I will admit this is a “good” artsy album and creatively, warrants a decent level of respect. I will also say this album requires a lot of attention to detail and at times I felt like Sufjan was throwing everything including the kitchen sink into the songs for the sake of sounding complex. To some, that may be interpreted as him pushing the envelop and exploring new sounds, but to me, it sounded a bit pretentious with the overblown arrangements as if the guy has something to prove. He’s gotten quite smug over the past year with teases about his writer’s block debacle and then coming up with this. I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything less.
Totally agreed. It’s an interesting listen with some really stellar songs, but some of the tracks seem to be so focused on big sounds and crazy instrumentals that they lose sight of the melodies, which would, perhaps, be more apparent with a bit of restraint. I don’t know about the smug thing, I’m sure he’s just trying to do something interesting.
Still 6 minutes from finishing “Impossible Soul” and while this song is a hefty pill to digest, everyone before it I found incredibly great accomplishments for Sufjan. The shorter songs are some of my favorites, the opening track & “Bad Communication”
Sure Sufjan’s been acting funny in interviews, I kind of just chalked it up to him coming to terms with his initial childish idea to do an album for all 50 states. No, and never was, going to happen.
But as for the comment on Sufjan having “something to prove.” I think he does. I think for the long span in between this album and Illinoise one could say “He doesn’t have anything to prove” and just point to Illinoise as proof. But that was 2005, man needs more current proof as to why he should be revered. Because there are very, very few current songwriters in our day that can do what Sufjan is doing and has done.
I feel sometimes things are viewed as pretentious when rather they’re just taking themselves very serious. I’m not sure, but I am sure that this album is High Quality.
Yes I agree with ‘losing the melodies’. I think SS is a great at arrangements, but he rarely writes a real hook and great melody, imo. That isn’t an end all for me but I think his whole shtick has always been ‘amazing songwriter’ and I only buy that title occasionally with him. Being sexy never hurt his career also, just sayin’
I’ve listened to the album twice now, and I think its probably the best record he’s released. It feels more cohesive than his other ones. Less sprawling in some ways. More focused (despite the lack of overall “concept” or ‘thematic underpinnings” or whatever the State albums had going for them).
However, for me personally it isn’t easy to listen to, but that’s not to say it isn’t enjoyable. It just requires more of my focus to experience it than I can give casually, which is fine. It just means that I won’t be able to spin the album any old time and place.
I just listened to “Impossible Soul” again, and I think it’s a masterpeice. Totally epic.
Also really love “I Want To Be Well” and “Age of Adz”.
Good album. Could’ve done with a bit less beeps and bleeps (they’re kinda dated), but all in all it’s way better than most of the stuff that’s out there at the moment.
This album restored my faith in organic songwriting. Everything flows so well and even though there are all those electronic additions, it still sounds like real music as opposed to cut-n-paste pop. More artists need to use auto-tune like Sufjan did!
Oh man, this is such a great album. I feel like the whole second half of Impossible Soul is Sufjan triumphantly proclaiming his return to the music scene.
The second half of Impossible Soul makes me infinitely happy.
I’m loving this album, and feeling a bit spoiled because I’m one of those weirdos who also really liked the “All Delighted People” e.p., though I feel kind of silly calling it an e.p. when you could fit at least a couple of full-length Weezer albums into the length of it. My faves thus far are Now That I’m Older and I Want To Be Well, though the whole album is working for me. The bleeps and bloops at times feel like clutter, and at other times they feel like harmless ornamentation, and at other times still they punctuate the mood of the song perfectly. At worst, I pay little mind to the electronic frills on this album – they’re pretty inobtrustive to me, for the most part. My least favorite tracks thus far are “Get Real Get Right” (which I still like; it’s just a hard song to snuggle up to) and the title track, which sounds to me like an Arcade Fire song…which is great if I’m listening to an Arcade Fire album. The last song, my god – it’s an amusement park. The few incidents in which I’ve had enough time to listen to the whole song in one sitting, I feel as though this one song could well have been an e.p. in and of itself. It’s rare to pull off a track this long that remains entertaining throughout, but this one pulls it off. It’s not to say that “Impossible Soul” couldn’t use a haircut, but it’s just fine as its shaggy self.
incidents = instances. BAH, stupid fingers not type right.
“Weirdos”? All Delighted People is the best music release of the year so far.
Agreed. “Djohariah” and “All Delighted People” are better songs than anything on the Age of Adz.
I’m going to recant that. I just listened to “Impossible Soul” again and it is every bit as good as these other two songs, if not better.
there is so much more going on here than songs on an album with funny noises. this album is the most vulnerable and confessional we have ever heard sufjan. we are hearing the struggle of “becoming a cliche of himself” with the tension of another state album vs. writing music that matters. we hear the faith struggle between who he has been and who he ought to be. we hear the confession of being too self-centered and to self-indulged (stupid man) to realize the beauty of life and the opportunity he has to live and share.
album starts off not too far from a typical sufjan album…but then takes a drastic turn. it almost sounds like (at the beginning of Too Much) that the music is plunging us into a (dream? inside of sufjan?) with soof…he is always telling a larger story with his music (so much more than just lyrics). i think the entire album is about “where he was at” and then about “what he has been going through.” first song was a continuation of sorts “where he was at” and then the “disruption” in his life (spiritual life) of who he was being and who he ought to be.
the album unfolds (i think) as two different forces talking/pulling at him and trying to get him to go their way. age of adz seems like the entrance of the epic struggle of good/bad. get real get right, bad communication, now that i am older, vesuvius highlights the struggle.
the last songs are some his most personal and most confessional/heart wrenching. you get the impression from “don’t be distracted” that he has been for too long. distracted by expectation and fear…unable to find the joy in making music that really makes a difference and is a part of him. Impossible Souls reaches it’s height when he auto tune sings, “stupid man in the window…I couldn’t be addressed. all my delight…all that mattered…I couldn’t be addressed. from what I liked…from what I gathered….I couldn’t be addressed.
“it’s a long life…better pinch yourself. put your face together…better stand up straight!”
“could it get much better”
“boy, we can do much more together!”
“it’s not so impossible”
did we just hear an auditory expression of what has been going on inside of sufjan? i think so. the tension. the struggle between who he has been and where he needs to go. all of the chaos of the music with the reverb-y voice leads me to think we are deep inside of soof’s psyche. we are witnesses to the battle that most people are too afraid to ever admit…or too afraid to talk about. he is super vulnerable in this album and that is why this may be one of my favorite sufjan albums to date.
that’s a pretty similar read to what i have on the album. however, i took the whole auto-tune moment as sufjan speaking to god. “i couldn’t be at rest with all this stuff. i sought too much pleasure from everything” even though i’m not religious, when he says “stupid man, come down and give your best” it’s pretty emotional. as if to say “don’t just hide up there, help me out. work with me here”
pretty great moment.
good call. there is so much to unpack and I still don’t have the lyrics to look at. for a guy to live through this and work through this the last five years…you know it is dense.
Impossible Soul is the album…nuff said.
Its up there with Echoes in terms of epicness and delivering on it
“I Want To Be Well” just made my head explode. Sufjan is not fucking around. Didnt think something could make me abandon interest in Halcyon Digest so quickly but leave it to Sufjan to always leave me captivated.
It’s crazy to me how he can add all these somewhat superfluous electronic noises and yet this album still feels more raw and honest then anything he’s released before. Blown away. The last 4 songs really make the album.
I’m not sure whether I should listen to this album now, or when it comes out. Either way, I’m very, very excited.
Something significant about Oct.12?
I know, right?? I am like so silly over Soofy, also! I’m thinking that this album is so hella stellar that it might just get us laid.
No?
I loved “Illinois”, but wouldn’t consider myself a big Sufjan fan. But this album is pretty fantastic, in ways so different than “Illinois”. I think, from now on, I’ll be anticipating his next records.
Oh my… Sufjan Stevens does AUTO-TUNE ?? (around 58:00) Still loving it tho.
I’m not diggin all the electronic beeps, fizzes, and pops. I think that it ruins a lot of the record, i don’t think it makes it raw, i think it makes it over produced and hard to listen to. Don’t be distracted… it’s kind of hard not to be.
Which, I think, is the point…
On my third listen, I still like All Delighted People more. Djohariah is just a beautiful piece of music, and I don’t feel any of that in this album. I like the concept of Sufjan getting all personal and Oberst-y, but I can’t relate to any of this. I don’t think anyone can.
Some of his best work. That said, I just can’t get into “Get Real, Get Right.” I don’t know if I ever will be able to, either. It sounds like the stool song in Waiting For Guffman.
But don’t get me wrong, most of this album absolutely breaks my heart.
Get Real, Get Right is my least favorite as well. I just can’t really get into it.
yes, YES! I thought I would be the only one who would compare a sufjan song to the weird cheesy song from a christopher guest movie.
I don’t know if that’s the reason it bothers me, but for some reason I just don’t like this song.. especially the first half.. it gets better as it goes on but still..
Oh, man! I can’t listen to this song anymore after reading your comment. And it was so close to being a perfect album for me.
That being said, album of the year anyone? Nothing else I’ve heard this year comes close.
Also, the “I’m not fucking around” section of “I Want To Be Well” is hugely Radiohead. I can’t be the only one to think this…the frenetic energy of the drums, the squeaks and squalls, and the unhinged vocal approach…I mean all this in a good way as a big fan of both.
i hadn’t thought about that, but i totally hear it. it’s those drums.
There’s a lot of parts on this album that remind me of Radiohead.
But why is this “thumbs-down” territory?? Jesus. I didn’t say it sounds like Radiohead because there are synths. That would have been stupid. I didn’t say this was Sufjan’s Kid A. That, also, would have been stupid. I said that specific elements of one specific part of one specific song reminded me of another band and everyone’s all OHHHH BOOOOOOOOO!
But seriously, doesn’t that part sound kind of like a Radiohead part?
yeah umm – I’ve been thinking the same thing but can’t figure out which song it is and it’s driving me a bit batty. have you pinpointed which song it sounds like?
I’m talking specifically about the “I’m not fucking around” bit of ‘I Want To Be Well’.
Not specifically, but it’s definitely reminiscent of the Hail To The Thief/In Rainbows era stuff. (A little bit “15 Step,” a little bit “Body Snatchers” or “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”)
sit down stand up. the rain drops part.
I don’t hear Radiohead in that section at all, unless you think that synth-pop drums and a back-up choir is Radiohead. It sounds like the chorus of “Mr. Roboto” or maybe The Buggles.
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Its everyone`s.
As “Impossible Soul” evolved and transitioned into a cloud of creative clutter and unfocused energy, I really began to dig it. Especially beginning at around the 10 minute mark. I could feel the song growing on me, even during the first listen. And then at the 22 minute mark, out of a sonic, almost robotic haze, comes Sufjan to remind us who he was as an artist. This final portion fits so perfectly, and the transition is completely seamless. I had my “holy shit” moment with about 1 minute left in the song. Just magnificent.
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To be fair, I think a lot of the Radiohead Kid A comparisons are based on making a daring and very different follow up album a few years after a modern classic, i.e OK Computer and Illinois. I think “Sufjan’s Kid A” is a phrase you’re going to have to get used to.
The worst thing about this album is that it means I’m not listening to All Delighted People anymore. The title track on that EP is incredible, Djohariah is unbelievable and I actually love From the Mouth of Gabriel, but I think I’m alone on that one… regardless… I’m now, and for the immediate future, inhabiting an Age of Adz world.
No way, From The Mouth Of Gabriel is stunning. I REALLY love that one (especially after the first minute or so).
What’s not straightforward about most of Illinois? “Casimir Pulaski Day”, “Predatory Wasp” & to an extent, “John Wayne Gacy, Jr” are pretty direct and basically not in-character.
The more I listen to this album, the more Sufjan’s past becomes a distant memory. I’ve loved Sufjan for a long time, but now I can’t imagine him /not/ making music like ‘The Age of Adz’. It’s almost like he’s always been a spastic dark electronic chamber pop artist that just happened to make some guitar and banjo songs. Well done, my friend. Well done.
zayin_451…I think your comment is right on. as much as I hate to say it…after listening to this inreally don’t want to revisit Illinois anytime soon. Illinois is still great but it does seem so distant. I hope that when the first major reviews come out for this album…they don’t try to evaluate this by: 1. comparing it to his previous work- or- 2. by evaluating it based upon how it appeals to the consumer market. just evaluate it for what it is…and that is very deep, honest, and poignant creative endeavor that most people won’t understand or even take the time to understand. once again, in and of itself, it is a fantastic album.
One thing about this album people are saying that I find surprising is how it’s such a “big switch” for Sufjan fans. Honestly, if you’ve been following his work, with the BQE, the song he did for Dark Was The Night, and the Vol 8 Christmas EP that leaked last year, it seems like this sound has been developing for a long time now. If you compare it right next to Illinois, then yes, it’s incredibly left field, but this transition has been happening for a while now, I think.
Absolutely! This have been driving me insane. For god’s sake, his FIRST album was entirely electronic.
Sufjan has always been an incredible producer of his music, his songs have never been remotely “acoustic”, just spare and refined.
This is not a ‘switch’ so much as a reuniting of Sufjan’s disparate styles. And it’s wonderful.
Vol. 8 Christmas Ep what what? Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas Infinity Voyage??? Any idea where this can be found? All the media fire links I’ve found are dead….
Yes please! I would really love to hear it.
Sufjan needed to do something different, but I feel he over-corrected a bit with the ugliness and unwarranted thickness. And don’t get me wrong, I love ugliness and noise, I just don’t feel it works here. I love many songs, such as “Too Much”, up until it just sounds like Sufjan had a great song that he just couldn’t bring himself pare down (in “Too Much” I feel it happens around 4:something): many songs on the album are like this.
The Age of Adz (pronounced “Odds”) is a work that challenges mediums. The 74 minute album was released only weeks after Sufjan Stevens abruptly announced and released the hour long All Delighted People EP. Several critics recently have described Sufjan Stevens as an artist who releases album length EP’s and EP length songs (althought Age of Adz closer, Impossible Soul, has a runtime that is actually only three minutes shorter than Weezer’s 2001 self titled full length for example and thus could be called an album length song). This, coupled with recent interviews wherein the artist describes his loss of faith in the medium of the album, begs certain questions. Specifically, what exactly does “album” signify in 2010?
Despite Age of Adz being described as grandious, epic (Victorian and Wagner inspired), and challenging, by critics, the ‘album’ actually feels much shorter than his seminal release from 2005, Illinois, despite being 40 seconds longer. This is a subjective assessment but my argument operates on the logic of the song and album structure. Illinois contained 22 tracks, with track times ranging between seven minutes and seven seconds: some instrumental, some connected to others as intros, extensions, or codas, and only 12 of which obey something near the conventional pop song structure. Illinois feels like a lot more to digest than Age of Adz because it is ambitious in scope and conceptually overstuffed. Age of Adz, conversely contains only eleven songs, two or three of which feel much closer to interludes than ‘songs’. And although the album closer is clearly demarcated into five movements, it remains a cohesive work and thus easier to digest than the diverse efforts compiled into Illinois.
The ‘short feel’ of the album leads me to believe that some of the tracks on the All Delighted People EP may have been intended for the same work but cut due to time constraints. especially the EP closer, Djohariah, a track that is thematically and sonically consistent with Age of Adz. After all, you can only fit 80 minutes onto a cd, and cds still account for the most revenue of physical media in music. Stevens may have considered releasing his new material in the form of a double album as he did when compiling material for Illinois. He could have also considered splitting the material into two separate albums. But both options imply a separation that is conceptually inappropriate for the material. Again, Age of Adz feels short because of its cohesiveness. The option Stevens chose is actually very similar to what he did for the Illinois album, which is a full release accompanied by an outtakes, extras, and b-sides, release. The material on The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album is not as strong as the material on Illinois with a few exceptions but still strong enough to deserve a release. To release all the material together however would diminish the integrity of the work.
Similarly, the All Delighted People EP is a dumping ground for material that did not make it onto Age of Adz or any other release. The EPs strongest song, the title track, is the least conceptually related of Stevens’ new material. Djohariah is consistent in terms of its experimentation with song length (over seventeen minutes) and therefore unfortunately much too long to fit onto Age of Adz. The song also has qualities that demand for its placement at the end of an album (or EP), a place occupied rightfully by Impossible Soul on Age of Adz. The Owl and The Tanager and All Delighted People (at least in terms of its title) are tracks that have been works in progress for many years. The rest of the material on the All Delighted People EP sounds new but sonically radically different and acoustic compared to the material in Age of Adz. Therefore, with the All Delighted People EP we see what an acoustic release by Stevens would look like if he followed through with one, something that is familiar water for the artist.
It is for these reasons that the release is appropriately referred to as an ‘EP’ despite ‘EP’ typically referring to a collection of songs that is too short to qualify as a full release. The EP is an hour long, much longer than the average album, but it only contains seven songs, one of which appears twice in different arrangements. The songs are also inconsistent sonically and conceptually and come from different origins. Therefore, it is a dumping ground of unreleased material which is why it is an EP and not an ‘album’. This is unfortunate because the evolution of the EP is simultaneously headed in a different direction in different musical spheres.
The EP looks at times like the next step in the evolution of the album. Animal Collective’s Fall Be Kind EP for example is as long as Weezer’s 2001 self titled album and is equally consistent sonically and conceptually. However, there are less than half as many songs on the EP. This is good news for contemporary audiences who download their music rather than purchase it and are more accustomed to investing less than a half hour of their time into each listen. Ultimately the EP is evolving in two directions. One direction encourages releases that are nothing but filler. ‘Filler’ here can refer to material that does not warrant attention in being on a proper full length album release, or it can refer to material which simply did not fit anywhere else (see All Delighted People). However, the other direction signals releases that eliminate filler. Fall Be Kind could have easily been extended into a full album format. One of two things would be required for this to happen: either Animal Collective would need to add ‘filler’ to make the material feel as long as an album (and diminishing the quality of the release), or Animal Collective would need to spend a lot more time developing material for a quality Fall Be Kind full album release, something the band were clearly not interested in exploring.
The album as a medium signifying a work of songs ranging between 30 and 80 minutes remains in existence only because of physical media. After all, this is where these all these signifiers originated. EP stands for Extended Play Single which basically means someone decided to put more than an A side and B side onto a seven inch vinyl pressing, and thus requiring it to be called something other than a ‘single’. Despite Stevens’ expressed concerns regarding the life or status of the album in the contemporary (digital) music climate, the album will not slowly disappear as some may speculate because there will always be nostalgia for physical media. Physical media will always have its merits and its influence on music releases will always be strong. Can anyone really imagine an artist releasing a collection of songs without album ‘artwork’ (something completely superfluous yet totally ubiquitous to digital music releases)? This idea is insane because of what it implies for marketing music.
The album will not disappear but it can evolve as it is improved by new media. This has already happened; CDs nearly doubled the potential length of album from 40 to 80 minutes. What is needed to push the album forward is an investment in what new media offers. Last year the Flaming Lips released their ‘double album’ (even though it could easily have fit onto a single disc and is shorter than Age of Adz for example), Embryonic, in a 5.1 DVD format. The idea of hearing a higher bit rate through five speakers is exciting and innovative but nowhere near the ‘norm’. Earlier this year, Animal Collective released ODDSAC, an album that received very little attention (not even a pitchfork review!) because most people do not consider it to be an ‘album’ at all. The band refers to it as a ‘visual album’ and a collaboration with director, blablabla. Emphasis was taken away from the sound and distributed unevenly onto the visuals (unevenly because the visuals are arguably more important than the sound and because there are shockingly very few hipsters listening to the new album on their iPods). ODDSAC premiered at Sundance and was not released in an audio format. This is somewhat unprecedented if you think of other albums which accompany films: Pink Floyd: The Wall, Outkast’s Idlewild, The Flaming Lips’ Christmas on Mars, Sufjan Stevens’ The BQE. But ODDSAC is not an album that accompanies a film so much as it is a film. Not to mention the complete lack of any trace of narrative within the film. But why not release it as an audio album too? At the very least an improper release of mp3’s should appear eventually bringing more attention to the material, no?
Sufjan Stevens’ The BQE was released in multiple formats which included the option of purchasing a CD or just the mp3’s. In many ways this is a mistake. From a financial perspective however this decision undoubtedly lead to more revenue than ODDSAC. The BQE is probably more popular too. However, The BQE is still not as popular as it deserves to be, and what I would argue was the best release of 2009, was grossly misread by most critics. The misreading came undoubtedly from critics making the mistake of treating the work as an ‘album’. This explains why Pitchfork reviewed The BQE but not ODDSAC and why their criticisms of the album were largely unfounded. For example, in reviewing the work, Pitchfork complained that the Hula Hoop theme was not explained adequately. From Wagnerian logic however, The BQE deserves to be digested for all its parts; the essay, artwork, film, music, and comic book, viewmaster 3D reel, do very much each pull an equal weight in executing an idea. To listen to just the music, is to miss the point. This is problematic when the formats available for purchase do not contain each of the work’s components.
Nevertheless, The BQE was the most exciting and innovative release of 2009, and had more consumers engaged with all of the work’s parts, the reception would have been much more enthusiastic. Despite being forty minutes long, The BQE is far more ambitious than anything else Stevens has released. But it is not really an album is it? Neither was The Avalanche or his collection of Christmas themed ‘EPs’ (run time just over two hours). Despite the abundance of (great quality) material released by Stevens, only Age of Adz signals the artist’s return to the music scene and ‘best new music’ flags of approval. These facts say more about the state of the album in 2010 than the work of any other artist. Although it may have been against his intentions, Stevens proves that the album, in 2010, is stronger than ever.
I don’t hear a single.
I would add “writes song titles as long as songs” to the first sentence of this article
+1