Carrie & Lowell

About

Even on his grandest album, Sufjan Stevens sometimes went it alone, recording himself solo, as he played all the parts of his kaleidoscopic composition. It’s telling, then, that one of Stevens’ smallest-<i>sounding</i> albums—2015’s heartbreaking <i>Carrie & Lowell</i>—was recorded in a half-dozen studios or hotel room, with the assistance of multiple engineer, musician, and even a bona fide producer, Thomas Bartlett. Only two years before Stevens made the record, his largely estranged mother, Carrie, died of stomach cancer. Despite the tense relationship, the grief blindsided Steven, who in turn rebelled against this face-off with mortality with loose sex, drug, and booze. He was coping inside a freefall, and he hoped writing and recording about his lack of a life with Carrie would ease the pain. He needed that help. Few albums look at death as unflinchingly as <i>Carrie & Lowell</i>. “We all know how this will end,” Stevens sings by way of introduction during the seemingly cheery opener, “Death With Dignity.” Carrie struggled with mental illness most of her life, and left Stevens when he was one year old, reuniting with him for a brief spell after her marriage to Lowell Bram, while Stevens was still a toddler. <i>Carrie & Lowell</i> is part travelogue of alternately painful and pleasant memories: At one point, Stevens recalls being abandoned by his mother at a video store; later, he remembers learning how to swim alongside Bram, a new but steadying presence in his life. Those were days of strange wonder and worry, vividly recounted here. .

via Apple Music

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