I downloaded Sufjan Stevens' new album, "Age of Adz" on September 28th, and according to iTunes, I have listened to it 51 times since then. Please note that this does not include the countless times I listened to it in the car. So yeah, I'm just a liiitttle obsessed with this album, and with Sufjan Stevens in general. Thanks to Blair for introducing Sufjan's music to me way back in 2004.
This concert was amazing, especially the live performance of "Impossible Soul", a song that is really more of an opus and is twenty-five minutes long. During the concert, Sufjan (I call him by his first name because we are besties. DO NOT QUESTION ME!) said that with this album, he wanted to strip away characters, geography, and narrative, melody, and even music. He wanted to get to what he called the "heart, the brain, the spine of the noise". Some reviewers have called this album self-indulgent, likening it to a musical masturbation session. Haters. I know very little about music or instruments. I focus on what sounds good and on meaningful lyrics, so I can only speak from that perspective. With that in mind, this is my favorite album. It feels raw, emotional, and like a piece of him, sort of like his other albums were novels and this is a memoir in progress.
A great night that will serve as a beautiful memory in my mind for many years to come. I took some videos of the concert (hand held, so somewhat shaky), which you can view on my YouTube Channel, here.
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2 comments:
LOVE the novel/memoir analogy. Very accurate! I am afraid to even look to see how many times I've listened to The Age of Adz. I hear they filmed Boston's concert for a possible DVD in the future. FINGERS CROSSED!
Haha, I'm not surprised you have listened to Age of Adz over 50 times so far. That concert, although at times off-putting, has really affected me and has enhanced my appreciation for the album. He said his goal was to explore pure sensation, and although the music captures that well, having experienced it visually at the concert has ground it into my skin even deeper.
I feel so lucky that Sufjan has allowed us, his fans, to be a part of his process, and that he has chosen to share a part of himself with us. If he wants to musically masturbate on me, that's cool.
He is a genius.
I want to know how many Yes albums he listened to before writing Impossible Soul.
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