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10:
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timeless/perfect
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9 to 9.9:
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significant past 10 years
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8 to 8.9:
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significant past 5 years
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7 to 7.9:
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memorable
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6 to 6.9:
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standard playlife
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5 to 5.9:
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good for now
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4 to 4.9:
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will get a few playthroughs
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3 to 3.9:
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won't intentionally listen to this
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2 to 2.9:
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strongly avoid it
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1 to 1.9:
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no reason to ever listen to this
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0.1 to 0.9:
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rage-inducing
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0:
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no merit whatsoever.
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 Stevens, Sufjan
"Illinois" (CD)
released in 2005
Label: Asthmatic Kitty
http://www.sufjan.com
This is what it sounds like when an artist's abilities and confidence levels in these abilities conjoin at a peak. Skill meshes with ambition, the artist's past successes fermenting into a new, broader strength, and a work of exceeding beauty and power is the result. Mighty and far-reaching but short of overwrought, personal and universal, while focused on a relatively foreign topic, and just great music. So it is on Sufjan Stevens' second state study, Illinois.
Sure, Sufjan is focusing on one state, and though he's done it before it still begs the question of whether or not he can make it interesting to listeners in the 49 states. But Illinois, or any appreciation or knowledge of the state and its history, is almost completely non-vital to this album, except perhaps that Illinois does have a rich history to mine for stories and heroes (wait until he gets to Arkansas or Connecticut). Sufjan had little prior experience with the Land of Lincoln, but he studied its tomes and tales and delivers an epic that has accurately been compared to a Ken Burns production.
So, of course this has a lot going on, 22 songs replete with fragmented and transitionary tracks as well as two multi-part efforts going 75 minutes. Not just casual, short and sweet work, but at the same time, it's no Fiery Furnaces, say. This is accessible music, American in its very nature, with a string quartet, tons of trumpet and flute flourishes, gorgeous keyboard/organ/piano work, and the banjo/guitar playing at the core of it all. Stevens is still working in folk realms, especially in but not limited to the historical nature of the disc, but the sound hearkens back to pre-Jazz themes of musical theater and Gershwin while also featuring a plethora of pop hooks and constructions.
Illinois starts off with a prelude, a peaceful but ominous piano driven "Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland, Illinois.” Sufjan's voice is as good as ever, reaching vocal heights at the perfect times. This two-minute song flows into the instrumental "The Black Hawk War" (the title on the album is significantly longer), which signals the arrival of the disc, with its militaristic flare, again getting in at barely over two minutes. It's all a setup, though, as the piano riff kicking off the subtitle track, "Come on! Feel the Illinoise!" Fast, poppy, glorious, two parts and many more sections, nearly seven minutes with not a second wasted and memorable parts galore.
The hits just roll on from here, and the contrast between them could not be starker, from the haunting, beautiful "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." (about a serial killer), to the jaunty "Jacksonville,” and the electric guitar-led "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts.” Being as there are so many songs on here, it makes sense that there would be many great songs as well, but the proportion and variety is outstanding. It would be folly to list anymore favorites, but also unfair to skip over "Chicago,” the emotional centerpiece of the album, a song only tangentially related with Illinois but right in the vein of all of Sufjan's best moments, perhaps surpassing them over these six minutes.
When you buy this album, pay no heed to this wider, 50-state project, or the choice of location Sufjan made, or even comparisons to past works of his. This is an extraordinary record, and while there are clear ties to Sufjan's other efforts, it just does not matter. Illinois stands on it own, proud and bold, ready to win you over with its many twists and turns. And, whether familiar with the state or Sufjan otherwise, it is hard to imagine a current music fan not enjoying a significant portion of this record, if not the whole thing.
-30-
Review written on 2005/07/01 by Dan Shvartsman
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