In an interview with Paste Stevens said “the whole premise [of the project] was such a joke,” a joke maybe he took too seriously: “I started to feel like I was becoming a cliché of myself.” He recently told us he won’t rule out another state LP, though, so keep dreaming.
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Let’s not get carried away now…That might be part of the problem…
The only joke here is Sufjan, himself. The guy is so full himself these days, has been backpedaling on his past intentions and keeps pretending like he’s bigger than his music lately. I call bullshit on this guy and think what’s really wrong is that he’s finally realized that he’s tapped out of talent but is covering it up with all these cop outs.
At least Sufjan doesn’t visit online music blogs to bash the character of a person whom he hasn’t ever met. That’s what I call being “full of” oneself.
As soon as I muster up the resolve, I’m done with the world of music criticism. What good fruits does it produce? It just turns people snarky, opinionated and jaded, myself included.
Too bad I like knowing what happens in the music world. If only the comments could be shut off.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Somebody doesn’t like Sufjan!” = your comment
Thanks, Sufjan’s #1 fan. You really changed my life with what you said. It was so deep and introspect, much like Sufjan’s lyrics. Maybe you can pass on your insight to him so he can finally write an album instead of continuing to bitch to every music journalist out there about how he’s stuck in a rut, hates the state of music, blah blah blah. I swear, we’ve heard more from this guy about why he ISN’T making music in the past few months than when he actually did do so.
Point taken, but also point proven. Listen to yourself. Read what you just wrote out loud. What are you contributing to anybody or even to yourself?
Leah, I love you but understand this is a comment board on an indie blog whose writers take every chance they can to write snarky quips at music. Expect the same from the readers. Nothing against Mr. Stevens as a person, but he’s really done some remarkable PR on his part by complaining and nobody really likes a complainer.
Yeah, you’re right.
To be fair, however, he’s agreeing to do interviews with folks who are clamoring for them, and then they just ask him the same questions over and over again (i.e. you recently wrote in an interview you did with Shannon Stephens that you were having an existential crisis, etc….). The questions have literally been the same, so the answers he gives are also uniform. And as someone has already mentioned at the bottom, he’s already said he’s over it and putting out an album next year.
What I don’t understand is why every music source I read reports on these interviews he gives when he says the same thing everytime. For weeks now we’ve been hearing about Sufjan’s crisis. Maybe he should stop reiterating himself. Maybe they should stop asking the same questions. But I’m still not going to defame his character or the interviewer’s character or the character of the folks who keep posting literally the same information about him every week. And I shouldn’t have questioned your character, either.
:) You’re beautiful. Keep rocking and worry less about opinions. They’re just words preventing you from enjoying yourself when you get to the bottom of it. I hope Sufjan finds his way, just for you.
illinois was so good i figure sufjan can do all the bitching he wants.
perfectly justifiable
Wow.
This was the nicest, most respectful argument on the internet I’ve ever seen.
Kudos, you two.
Ha…hire us for your next “conflict resolution” workshop at your office or other place of business.
Thumbs up, Leah!
Who the hell cares is the bigger question. File him under: highly overrated.
he should just record a duet with john mayer about how hard life is.
Everything this guy does is a joke. The indie world loves horrible ironic music and Sufjan is our Weird Al, so we must take him seriously.
We all know Sufjan is about to release a Jersey-based LP. It should hit the shelves any day now.
since when did everybody had on sufjan? did one of you hipsters wander into a starbucks and overhear his music playing on the stereo? because yeah. five years later, the rest of the world is still rocking sufjan stevens.
;-p
sounds like he just needs a good vacation. go to hawaii, or maybe disneyland, nowhere too introspective. Just have a good time and forget about music a bit. then comeback and write some more great albums.
seriously? a downvote? Sufjan doesn’t deserve a vacation?
dude needs to puff some dank and chill tha fuck out.
I feel where he’s coming from, but this is getting a bit ridiculous. Many artists have the same concerns but move beyond them and try to tap into the next stage. Yes this digital age has hurt the album along with printed media, film, entertainers, and probably our entire consumer core, but his whimpering will not change a thing.
Sufjan if you its unfair and its heavy on your mind just write a song about it! :)
If blogs wouldn’t take things out of context people would know he has said he’s over his problems with the music industry and is working on stuff hopefully for a release next year. But that’s not as interesting as his “existential crisis” so you never read that part.
SUFJAN STEVENS ROX MY SOX!!!!!!!!!!!!111!
All I’ll say is, I would really love to hear a new States album from him. These days it sounds like it’s not going to happen, but– I’ll still hope. Either way, the stuff he’s been doing aside from that (BQE) sounds great as usual.
hahahahaha, ku-dos, my friend. that beats these blathering idiots with a 2×4.
shit, that was sposed to be a reply to dankdogg.
sufjan would get really high and then deeply analyze music to the point where he couldn’t make it anymore.
Obviously saying that he “no longer knew what a song was” is evidence of extreme over thinking, but some of the questions he raises are actually really interesting. Albums usually clock in at around an hour because that’s about all the space there is on a CD or record. But since we’re sidestepping these mediums so regularly now, is there any reason for length and form of music releases to remain the same? I know it sounds overly philosophical and close to major bullshit, but I think he might be onto something.
this headline made me laugh.
not gonna lie. i’m a huge sufjan fan, but anyone following his stuff could have probably guessed he was not going to do another state.
I think we all knew deep down he wasn’t going to do all states… I would’ve loved to hear a Steven’s album covering Hawaii or California, too upbeat maybe? :)
I read this hoping for new news and found the same thing as all the others, so in my boredom I decided to read the comments and found a particularly interesting exchange between the two of you. Immediately my reaction much like Leah’s, but in less kind manner and with a few choice words. Upon my reading of Leah’s reply my thoughts turned to more of a deep love for Leah, however the rebuttal from Suf=yawn was superb and I began to feel differently toward him. I felt compelled to add to the dialogue, but, being that I am currently listening to Sufjan Live On Austin City Limits, I would be quite biased on the subject and, therefore, will not post anything relevant to if Sufjan is whining bitch or not I congratulate the reader of this comment on their colossal waste of time.
: }
if he doesnt do a Deleware album imma gonna be pissed!
I’m more worried about him doing a new LP at all, whether or not its a state album. We might not ever even get Impossible Souls, Age of Adz, and those other new songs on a record at all.
I actually am getting a hell of a lot out of BQE, although, yeah, another States album would be great. BQE bought him some time in my world, anyways.
Ok, if Sufjan is just doing that thing middle children do (I’m a middle child so we all do this) where we say we’re going to stop doing something we’re good at just so everyone will tell us we’re special again I ain’t having it. I completely understand.
Either that or he’s an artist tired of a form. He should get a twitter and make an album out of Tweets. It’ll be just like the song titles off of Michigan and Illinois.
I’m sure he set himself up for artistic confinement by ever hinting that he would do all 50 states. It’s a daunting task, and if the music doesn’t come from the creative energy inside the artist, but rather as a fulfillment of some some sort of verbal contract, I can imagine that would be quite stifling. If his heart is not in it, then end result would be 48 albums of pure musical fodder.
Maybe he should pull a Justin Vernon and hide in a cabin for a few months.
Did ANYBODY believe Stevens would do all 50 states? Maybe someone can corroborate the following: I remember reading an article around when MICHIGAN came out in which Stevens acknowledged that he would likely never complete the project himself but thought that other artists would pick it up as well–sort of implying it would be a kind of wide scale collaborative endeavor. Now I can’t seem to find any prior references to him not finishing it.
I don’t understand why people are perplexed–or, more importantly, why he feels the need to disavow the project entirely. I thought it was a good idea–and would love a NJ album (but certainly not from him). Personally, I had hoped Anaïs Mitchell would tackle a state–maybe Vermont.