Sufjan Stevens – “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”
Last month, Sufjan Stevens announced a new album, Javelin, with “So You Are Tired,” which landed on our best songs of the week list. Today, he’s sharing a second single, “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?,” which starts off solitary and muted but builds to burbling instrumentation and a chorus of voices. “Will anybody ever love me? For good reasons/ Without grievance, not for sport,” Stevens sings on it.
The song features background vocals from a trio of singers — adrienne maree brown, Hannah Cohen, and Megan Lui — all of whom were understandably stoked to work with Stevens. “The first time I sang the song I started crying, I was so moved by the honesty of the questions,” Brown said in a statement. “Sufjan is an impossibly brave and gifed writer.” Cohen added: “Being in the studio with Sufjan is like watching an alchemist at work. He creates a new realm, building our voices from a gentle choir, then morphing us into sirens raging from the sea.” And Lui said: “‘Will Anybody Ever Love Me?’ felt like a glimpse into Sufjan’s past records but spins into an epic collage of voices and instruments. His vision of melody and composition are astonishing and working with him and Hannah in the room was pure joy.”
It comes with a music video directed by Stevens’ longtime collaborator Stephen Halker. Watch and listen below.
Javelin is out 10/6 via Asthmatic Kitty.