Sufjan Stevens – ”Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State” (2003)

This was Sufjan Stevens’ third album and his first in the supposed serie about all the U.S. states (a claim he later admitted was only a promotional gimmick). And the state in focus is of course Michigan, which also happens to be Sufjan’s birth state.

The first time I heard this album was at my neighbour’s place in Quebec, the musician on top, Marc Vallée. He liked the album and thought that I too would find it interesting, and he was right. On Michigan Sufjan offers beautiful, often relatively calm and melancholy, songs with banjo, piano, horns, and other oddities. Sufjan plays most of the instruments himself and the album is recorded on, in this context, rather simple equipment. The vinyl version is a double album, which is nice. However, being a father to a couple of small children makes it difficult to play a full double album since the kids, when the stereo is turned on, suddenly demand to hear Sean Banan or other equally good artists.

Michigan contains mostly quite beautiful and delicate songs and sometimes I actually get some Simon & Garfunkel vibes, while a more druggy and floaty song like Oh God Were Are You Know makes me think of Spiritualized and their über druggy tunes. There are relatively sparse arrangements and Sufjans voice is far ahead in production, he's not hiding behind his instruments.

But sometimes the calm and melancholy is broken of by more fast paced numbers. In these, it’s often rather odd rhythms, never ending loops and a different song structure, giving you more of a progressive feel. And the institution allmusic.com has indeed progressive folk as one of several definitions of the album, and has allmusic.com said that it’s progressive, that’s the way it is.

 

Overall, a really good album, fun to listen to, easily accessible yet challenging. Maybe not a record for the violent pre-party, rather for the thoughtful after-party. Or a day when the kids are gone somewhere and you have the stereo to yourself for an hour or two.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid
2. All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!
3. For The Widows Of Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti
4. Say Yes! To M!ch!gan!
5. The Upper Peninsula

Side B

1. Tahquamenon Falls
2. Holland
3. Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!)
4. Romulus
5. Alanson, Crooked River

Side C

1. Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie
2. They Also Mourn Who Do Not Wear Black (For The Homeless In Muskegon)
3. Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)
4. Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)
5. Vito's Ordination Song
 
Side D
1. Marching Band
2. Pickerel Lake
3. Niagara Falls
4. Presidents & Magistrates
5. Wolverine

Prince – ”Parade” (1986)

During the period of my life when I listened quite regularly to Prince I thought this album was a bit difficult. Maybe it was the black and white cover? Album’s covers have often affected my experience of the music. Or maybe it was because the music is a soundtrack to a movie I hadn’t seen (and still haven’t seen)? The knowledge of unseen scenes that belonged to the songs maybe created a feeling that something was missing?

Today I don’t really know why I felt Parade was difficult. When I listen to it now I think it's a pretty groovy album, to be Prince at least. I have always had somewhat of a hard time with Prince’s funky and sometimes bare, dry sound. Just as on the previous album Around the World in a Day you get a lot of funk, sometimes with a psychedelic touch, mixed with some slender sparkling ballads. The psychedelic elements make the music more fun to listen to, I think anyway. Especially in the 80's such a touch in the music wasn’t especially common. Now and then Prince leaves the relatively dry and bare sound and goes to the other side, such as the B-side’s bombastic opening number Mountains.

Parade was Prince’s eighth album and he was 28 years old when it was released. As usual, Prince plays most of the instruments himself. The first four tracks can be seen as a suite, Prince first recorded the drum track to all four songs in a single take, then he recorded the bass, the guitar etc. in the same way. These first four songs flow nicely into each other. The album ends with the sad ballad Sometimes It Snows In April, that I somewhere read was about a dog Prince had, that died. I therefore thought it was a fitting song to listen to when my family's cat died, when I was still in my teens. Skuggan (The shadow) was her name. Parade also contains the hit Kiss, which I have never really liked.

This was the last album Prince released with the backing band The Revolution. The film the album is a soundtrack to is called Under The Cherry Moon, and Prince have a role in it.

Overall, I must say that this album is great craftsmanship, there are good songs with interesting twists, Prince is undeniably a musician and a composer of rank. That I have a hard time with his sound is another matter. Prince belongs to a past part of my life, and I think I'm done with him. But one should never say never.

Prince has some sort of hook-up considering the Internet and that his music is freely offered to mankind, Kiss was the therefore the only video I found on Yuutube (with sound). But there are better songs on the album.

 

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. Christopher Tracy’s Parade 2:11
2. New Position 2:21
3. I Wonder U 1:40
4. Under The Cherry Moon 2:57
5 .Girls & Boys 5:30
6. Life Can Be So Nice 3:12
7. Venus De Milo 1:54

Side B

1. Mountains 3:58
2. Do U Lie? 2:43
3. Kiss 3:38
4. Anotherloverholenyohead 3:58
5 .Sometimes It Snows In April 6:50