Sunday, February 6, 2011

Sufjan Stevens, Come On Feel This (8) over This Will Destroy You, Ditto (9)




So, I'm choosing Sufjan over This Will Destroy You.

But first I just want to complain about Sufjan Stevens.

This album is very 2005, no? A slight shudder runs down my spine when I remember shedding a tear for a song entitled "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." There's bodies under his floor, huh? Just like my sins? Meh. There's a lot of Xn Creative Writers' Workshop nonsense in Sufjan Stevens' Illinois albums; and while I really like some songs - e.g., the Chicago re-mixes on The Avalanche, the song about his friend who died who once let him kiss her - there's something distinctive about this early 2000's aesthetic: a manufactured not-kiddingness with a perpetual wink and a nudge of knowingness. In this sense, "Illinoise" should be placed alongside some other things that are quite good in their own right but which, to my mind, are all of a piece:

1. Dave Eggers' Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
2. This American Life
3. Slate
4. Royal Tenenbaums-Life Aquatic-era Wes Anderson
5. Paris Hilton jokes

And I like all of these things, just like I really like Sufjan Stevens' "Illinoise." (But let's be clear about one thing: there are certain sins that can't be atoned for with 25-minute long tracks that repeat "Boy, we can do much more together." Didn't the post-2008 election malaise and the healthcare debate remind us how pretty vacuous those kinds of refrains are?)

But I digress:

I choose Sufjan because the album is really original and complex. I'm overlooking "This Will Destroy You" because, while I really like the album - never heard it before, and would be totally prone to listen to it and enjoy it immensely - it sounds like everything I hear on Pandora when it won't obey me to start playing something other than Explosions in the Sky.

On that note, here's a pretty hilarious Onion piece:


Sorry, I think I've probably offended everyone with this post, including myself.

9 comments:

  1. Nice early 2000s aesthetic description & list. I hear what you're saying with the "manufactured non-kiddingness." Add to the list: the film Garden State.

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  2. Cutting and insightful. Also, I feel like this is a pattern: We complain about Sufjan before announcing his victory. He's annoying AND talented, I think.

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  3. For the record (and before you haters get your hands on him): I think Sufjan is awesome. So there.

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  4. Sorry, Andrew. Guess I ruined the cobbler for you, didn't I.

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  5. I heard he's working on an album in which every song is about a different Canadian province...It sounds too good to be true, but I think it just might be...Can you imagine all the badges he'll have on his shirt for that tour?! He'll probably have a perty sweet toque, too.

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  6. I hear that he's already recorded enough material for 2 albums about Saskatchewan.

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