Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell

Kid is special

This song rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAcn32Usjy0

the two new songs are nice, but this one's especially great. i'd really love a whole album that sounds like this, it's basically exactly where i wanted him to go after the last two albums.

like i'm absolutely here for chill synthpop sufjan with kinda sophisti-vibes and extended guitar solos

I've preordered this so it better not suck

https://theascension.sufjan.com/

so is this gonna be his Wisconsin album or.....

btw kinda funny to see this guy have a little resurgence thanks to "The Politician" which uses "Chicago" as its opening theme, I've watched only one episode but you can't pick a more perfect opening song than that. I'm guessing that's not gonna make anyone watch it though

the first single is "America" so presumably that will cover all remaining states xp

"America" drops July 3... cute!

I guess nobody was talking about "Aporia" earlier this year but it's really nice

general vibe i get from the art & tracklist makes me hopeful it's going to be more of an adz-style proggy synth freakout than folk album

interestingly "america" comes with b-side "my rajneesh"

I've preordered this so it better not suck

Not a chance.

huh "my rajneesh" is 10 minutes! excited for more sufjan epics

and the a side is 12:30

just lookin at the cues here this feels like it's gonna be a follow up to Age of Adz

Hope so...easily my favourite of his albums.

yea I think all his albums are great, but great in the Radiohead sense of the word, where I respect them a lot but don't really want to listen to them often...but if I do reach for one it's usually that one

i didn't really get age of adz when it came out but it's since become easily my favourite of his. second favourite is carrie & lowell but the live album from that tour is even better. that tour was one of the best shows i've ever seen

I really hope the title is a deliberate reference to Glenn Branca :)

I kind of assumed as much and it would be amazing if he incorporated some Branca-isms into this one

I didn't like The Age of Adz. Carrie and Lowell was ok

his previous albums - Michigan, Seven Swans, Illinois - were his best imo

I didn't like AoA at the time but it's gown on me a lot over time

Age of Adz is easily my favorite album of his -- art imitates life after all! Carrie and Lowell comes at a close second

I agree with Dan except that Carrie and Lowell is a masterpiece. I would like to join the crew who love AoA, I've tried quite a few times indeed, but I will keep at it.

Apparently the new one is inspired by Ariana Grande, Janet Jackson, “eighties and early nineties jams” and features “Prophet synthesizers and Tempest drum machines,” according to a press release that was put up by mistake (and almost immediately taken down).

i mean, you're speaking my language there

I feel like "fantastic" or "terrible" are really the two possible outcomes on this one

that pretty much confirms it's closer to adz than anything else he's done before and i couldn't be more excited

I saw the Adz tour here, and the place was very sold out with people that pretty clearly only knew him from Illinois. I'm not even sure the Adz album had come out yet! Anyway, people were generally patient but I could tell they were not really having it. He did a couple Illinois songs for the encore and they all went nuts, then went home.

someone listen to "america" and tell me if it's any good, I have a weird hangup about not wanting to hear closing tracks in advance

hearing reports that it's great and very adz-y

(i have a similar hangup simon but i may check it anyway)

it's adz-y but even more so it's a continuation of the synth-y arrangements from the C&L tour (the live version of "all of me wants all of you" etc.) and it's great

the song is only about 7 minutes long, the rest is an ambient outro so don't expect a mini "impossible soul" or anything

"my rajneesh" has leaked a week early too and it's way adz-ier than "america" and it's even better!

"my rajneesh" is just immense, would have been one of the best tracks on adz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn7_JpmhZP0

I love him

okay if that's an outtake then this might be the greatest album ever made

Fantastic song

Both these songs are a triumph of production/mixing... somehow Sufjan/his mixing engineer managed to find the sweet spot where super-saturated arrangements become pastel instead of intrusive/annoying. All his finicky tendencies are rendered gorgeous, these are already my favourite songs of his. The build at 7:00 on "My Rajneesh" with the backwards drums, trombone solo, dive-bomb synths, goddammit, the intensely beautiful ending, I am shaken

i've played 'rajneesh' four times already this morning, it's quite something.

Love both tracks but I understand why he left "My Rajneesh" off the new record since it's so Adz-like and heavily based on "Vesuvius".

i'm guessing it also just didn't fit thematically with whatever he's going for on this album, since it was written during the C&L sessions and fits in with the originally planned Oregon theme for that album.

it's certainly one of the best things he's ever done, probably a top 5 sufjan track for me. it's fascinating how it manages to seamlessly transition from the acoustic first section to the Adz-y synth bombast

My Rajneesh is extraordinary

it really is. i wish it was 10 minutes longer

I'm more excited about America as an album teaser than I would have been with My Rajneesh. I have no idea what the rest of an album featuring America sounds like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fCdZzsP4U0

this one's a little more underwhelming, very much what i'd expect from sufjan making a synthpop track but nothing to really elevate it to the standard of his best work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOstc1ZfDN4

this one's much better than "video game". the same style just executed far far better (also with a long instrumental intro)

new album is fine but i don't think it's a masterpiece on the level of his last two. it's a bit too samey for how long it is but i do really like "make me an offer i cannot refuse" and "tell me you love me"

it's very clear why "my rajneesh" wouldn't have fit on the album but it's significantly better than anything on it. even "with my whole heart" from last year is very similar in sound to the album but much stronger and has a little more going on than most of the album

First impression on the new album is that there’s a dissonance between the intended scope and the sound of it. It’s an album of big musical ideas but meager sound palette and production... and I don’t feel it’s an aesthetic choice. It sounds outdated but not on purpose.