Javelin

About

For the last two decade, Sufjan Stevens’ music has taken on two distinct form. On one end, you have the ornate, orchestral, and positively stuffed style that he’s excelled at since the conceptual fantasias of 2003’s star-making <i>Michigan</i>. On the other, there’s the sparse and close-to-the-bone narrative folk-pop songwriting that’s marked some of his most well-known singles and album, first fully realized on the stark and revelatory <i>Seven Swans</i> from 2004. His 10th studio full-length, <i>Javelin</i>, represents the fullest and richest merging of those two approaches that Stevens has achieved to date. Even as it’s been billed as his first proper “songwriter’s album” since 2015’s autobiographical and devastating <i>Carrie & Lowell</i>, <i>Javelin</i> is a kaleidoscopic distillation of everything Stevens has achieved in his career so far, resulting in some of the most emotionally affecting and grandiose-sounding music he’s ever made. <i>Javelin</i> is Stevens’ first solo record of vocal-based music since 2020’s <i>The Ascension</i>, and it’s relatively straightforward compared to its predecessor’s complexity. Featuring contributions from vocalists and frequent collaborators like Nedelle Torrisi, adrienne maree brown, Hannah Cohen, and The National’s Bryce Dessner (who adds his guitar skills to the heart-bursting epic “Shit Talk”), the record certainly sounds like a full-group effort in opposition to the angsty isolation that streaked <i>The Ascension</i>. But at the heart of <i>Javelin</i> is Stevens’ vocal, the intimacy of which makes listeners feel as if they’re mere feet away from him. There’s callbacks to Stevens’ discography throughout, from the <i>Age of Adz</i>-esque digital dissolve that closes out “Genuflecting Ghost” to the rustic Flannery O’Connor evocations of “Everything That Rise,” recalling <i>Seven Swans</i>’ inspirational cues from the late fiction writer. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →