Sufjan Stevens - "Illinoise" (2005)

or "Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise"

I have noticed that there has been a predominance of records from the 60s and 70's lately, hence a need to prove to the world that there are also some newer records in the collection, although they are not many. A record from 2005 must be considered brand new when it comes to my record shelf.

I totally missed Sufjan Stevens at the time for this release, instead I discovered him last year in Quebec when my neighbor Marc played this album for me. Fantastic, I thought spontaneously about the music, and felt happy for the discovery of a new obscure artist who confirmed the image of myself as a man of deep knowledge of the musical world. Now I've finally understood that Sufjan is not particularly obscure, far from it, and that rather, I'm having an extremely poor knowledge of "modern" music (or thump-thump as I call it).

This is a really good album. I have no idea how to define the music, allmusic.com defines it overall as Rock / Pop, and in more detail as Alternative / Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Progressive Folk, Americana and Indie Rock. Say what you will about the construction of genres, but a genre I've never understood is Indie. How do you know when a song is Indie? Of course I know a lot of Indie bands, but I don't really know what defines an Indie band or song. That they're indie (independent) doesn't correlate well to the reality. And Alternative? What is this genre? All the music that doesn't fit anywhere else? Should I create a definition regarding the music on Illinoise it's going to be Quality.

Well, Illinoise was Sufjans fifth studio album and the second of the albums on the theme of American States. He told the world that he would make 50 records, one on each U.S. state, but later he acknowledged that this was kind of a joke and mostly a marketing gimmick. Sufjan has been very ambitious in the creation of the songs and made a lot of research regarding Illinoise. He went through lot of archives, visited sites, interviewed people, visited the forums on the Internet asking people to come up with personal stories, etc. The result is a set of songs about different people and events from the Illinoise history. (And I know that you spell the State of Illinois without an "e" at the end, but I let the spelling on the album be my guiding light today).

Sufjan is a multi-instrumentalist and has recorded and produced most of the album all by himself, although a lot of fellow musicians are named on the album cover. For several months he was virtually isolated from the outside world and worked in a studio somewhere in New York. It is a low-fi production, to keep costs down Sufjan used relatively simple equipment, personally I don't think you can hear this on the result (although I understand that it may be supposed to be heard).

I really only have good things to say about the songs - they are well written, beautiful, interesting and fun to listen to. There are often small details in the songs that make it exciting to listen to them, not once did I find myself being bored when I listened to this album. What I also appreciate is the cover. The album is a double LP on vinyl with a really great cover designed by Divya Srinivasan. I suspect that, as vinyl records are released in relatively small numbers today, the artists work even harder on the covers. The covers are so to say, rather exclusive today compared to previous decades when they were created in enormous quantities and were more of an everyday thing. I think some artists want to reward people who buy vinyl instead of CDs or data files with a really nice cover. Basically, if you release an album on vinyl today, one makes sure it has a nice cover.

This is a record that I with a good conscience can recommend, it's music of high quality that I think most people can enjoy, although Alternative may be used to describe it. If nothing else, you can always have fun reading the song titles. It got great reviews on its release and went fast to top positions on lists like "Album of the year" or even "Album of the decade".

Finally, the reason why Illinoise is spelled with an "e" is that it hints to the fact that people often mistakenly pronounce this name as ill-i-noyz when you really should say ill-i-noy. It is also an allusion to Slades song Cum On Feel the Noize.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois 2:08

2. The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Going To Have To Leave Now, Or, "I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!" 2:14

3. Come On! Feel The Illinoise! Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream 6:45

4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. 3:19

5. Jacksonville 5:24

6. A Short Reprise For Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But For Very Good Reasons 0:47

Side B

1. Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother! 3:03

2 One Last "Whoo-Hoo!" For The Pullman 0:06

3 Chicago 6:04

4 Casimir Pulaski Day 5:53

5 To The Workers Of The Rock River Valley Region, I Have An Idea Concerning Your Predicament 1:40

Side C
1. The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts 6:17

2. Prairie Fire That Wanders About 2:11

 
3. A Conjunction Of Drones Simulating The Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis In The Great Godfrey Maze 0:19

4. The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us! 5:23

5. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh! 5:09

6. Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All The Way Out In Bushnell 0:40

7. In This Temple As In The Hearts Of Man For Whom He Saved The Earth 0:35

Side D

1. The Seer's Tower 3:53

2. The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders Part 1: The Great Frontier Part II: Come To Me Only With Playthings Now 7:02

3. Riffs And Variations On A Single Note For Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, And The King Of Swing, To Name A Few 0:46

4. Out Of Egypt, Into The Great Laugh Of Mankind, And I Shake The Dirt From My Sandals As I Run 4:21

5. The Ava Lanche 3:14