Illinoise

Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise

Illinoise
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-07-05
Music Label: Asthmatic Kitty
Soundtracks:
  1. Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
  2. The Black Hawk War, Or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and ...
  3. Come on! Feel the Illinoise!: Pt. 1: The World's Columbian Exposition
  4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
  5. Jacksonville
  6. A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But for Very Good ...
  7. Decatur, Or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!
  8. Chicago
  9. Casimir Pulaski Day
  10. To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea ...
  11. The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
  12. Prairie Fire That Wanders About
  13. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is out to Get Us!
  14. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from
  15. Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It
  16. In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth
  17. The Seer's Tower
  18. The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders: Pt. 1: The Great Frontier/Pt. ...
  19. Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, ...
  20. Out of Egypt, Into the Great Laugh of Mankind, And I Shake the ...

Free Music Notes for Illinoise

Free Music Review: On the Music of Sufjan Stevens
Hit: 4 Stars

Frankly, the music of Sufjan Stevens is a bit too twee and precious for my everyday tastes, but I'll be the first to admit that he comes close to touching something that exists in all of us -- that innate and intangible sense of "place" and "home" the likes of which famed authors John Steinbeck and Thomas Wolfe respectively attempted to dispel and recapture. This is more than simple reportage and anecdote; it's nothing less than a youthful attempt to get one's arms around the unifying spirit of, what seems obvious to Stevens, this "nation under God" -- something for both believers and agnostics to appropriately ponder.

Illinoise Poster

Subtitled Come On Feel The..., Sufjan Stevens & The Michigan Militia have moved to Illinois (dubbing themselves the Illinoisemakers) but this new album is the same Sufjan we know and love. Fingerpicked ballads of delicate twang, tasteful orchestration, and titles that are murder on the ID3 tags. While this album unmistakably owes its inspiration to the sound of Michigan, Sufjan has managed to take his orchestra-like folk template and expand on it, tapping into unexpected genres and bringing unexpected instruments like strings and woodwinds to the forefront, all while relating tales of the state's history as well as possibly fictional stories about its residents. To sweeten the deal, Sufjan's vocals have also improved some: he's managed to make his thin, meek vocal presence a little more noticeable, and while that doesn't stop him from using members of the quirky Danielson Famile as his own personal choir, it's nice to hear him sound more assured on some of this album's mellower moments. Rough Trade. 2005.
Illinois sounds like The Sea and Cake collaborating with the high-school band from a Wes Anderson film on banjo-driven, pulsing meditations on Vince Guaraldi's music for Peanuts. Sufjan Stevens, the singer-songwriter behind the endeavor, is an earnest and whimsical young man who aims to record an album based on every state in the union, though this is just his second attempt since 2003's Michigan. Lavish praise has been heaped upon this precocious twenty-something, who weaves personal recollections, historical narratives, and strange facts together to create lush portraits of Midwestern life. It's not maudlin stuff, and the atypical instrumentation (strings, choirs, trumpets, vibes) is beyond gimmick. Halfway through "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," when Stevens has you feeling true empathy for a serial killer, it's clear that he really is an artist of the highest order. These are weird and lovely middlebrow ditties; we eagerly await the Broadway adaptation. --Mike McGonigal

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