Joe runs through every album on his iPod, mostly in alphabetical order, and offers some brief thoughts. Check out previous columns HERE.
Okay, so this is the third time I'll be writing about this wonderful, strange, bonkers album. Third of four, really. The first time was a review for my school newspaper. The less said about that, the better (especially the forced-pun of a headline: "Sufjan Gives Listeners Swift Kick in the Adz"). The second was when I named it the second best album of 2010. Let's be clear: the only reason The Age of Adz wasn't named the best album of 2010 is because it was released the same year as probably the best album of all time (The Monitor, see y'all in 2021 to discuss it). The fourth will be when I'm writing about this again in a little less than two years as part of PoYB's planned BEST MUSIC OF THE DECADE EXTRAVAGANZA.
So, welcome to Joe's Age of Adz reflections, Part III.
I suppose I'll start where I usually start when talking about this album. The single most exciting thing about The Age of Adz is that, in 75 minutes, you get to hear Sufjan completely tear down his entire musical persona. Illinois this is not. Good luck finding a banjo in the mix here. Our indie rock Boy Scout died a horrific death on Age of Adz, suffocated under miles of reverb and computer glitches and swear words.
There are people who hate this album, avowed Sufjan acolytes who fucking despise this shit. And on one hand, I can totally sympathize. I was right there with them in the mid-'00s, completely enthralled with the serene tales of love and loss through the eyes of various fictional and non-fictional mid-westerners. It was nerdy, it was literature in song form, it was fucking beautiful.
And in the year or two after Illinois' release, there was this prevalent thought: "There are going to be FORTY-EIGHT MORE of these fucking things." Sufjan Stevens created Michigan and Illinois and it looked like damn sure that he was really going to complete his 50 States Project. I, for one, was fucking excited.
But then half a decade went by, and at that pace, Sufjan was going to be like 479 years old before he completed this hypothetical project. But still, we held on to hope. And then, in 2010, Age of Adz dropped.
It wasn't a state. Nobody fucking knew what it was, but it definitely wasn't that. So, look, I get it. I understand the disappointment one could feel.
But I will never agree with it. Because that whole narrative avoids the fact that The Age of Adz is fucking mammoth beast of an album. It's unstoppable.
Here's one way to describe it: if Illinois was Sufjan writing a grammatically-perfect blog post on Wordpress about the peculiarities of different fonts, the Age of Adz is Sufjan banging away on his keyboard in all caps, no periods, typing word vomit on Xanga about how much he hates himself and wants to die.
This is maximalism in its finest form. There are no quiet moments. I mean, sure, there are points when, like, the drums drop out, or the vocals take a breather, but there is ALWAYS something happening here. I can't imagine what it took to get all these fucking tiny little bleeps and bloops in the perfect order. Five years in between albums well-spent, I guess.
Clearly, there are two songs in here that we should single out as not only great songs, but also as capital-I Important in the music canon.
The first is the penultimate track, "I Want to Be Well." This song stands out for just how clearly Sufjan declares that everything is different now, and the old Sufjan is gone for good. The climax: "I'M NOT FUCKING AROUND!" There really isn't another F-word in the history of music as breathtaking as this. Maybe "Fuck the Police"? (Yes, I'm comparing Sufjan Stevens to N.W.A.) I could be wrong here, but I can't recall Sufjan dropping the F-bomb at any point in any song prior to "I Want to Be Well." He was a little church boy before this. With "I Want to Be Well," he becomes a man. It's fucking wild.
The second, obviously, is the final track, "Impossible Soul." Where in the world do I start with this one? It's over 25 minutes long, a multi-suite epic of a song. It's fluid; the changes between suites happen so naturally you have to really be paying attention to know when it's even happening. And the middle part of this song is one of the greatest pieces of music of all time. I think if it was its own song, it'd be my favorite song of all time, full stop.
The lyrics legitimately make me choke up every time I hear them: "In the wrong life / everything is chance... In the right life / it's a miracle, / Possibility, / Do you wanna dance?" Basically, it's saying—in the most Sufjan Stevens way possible—that life may seem like it's all random, but if you look at in the right way, that randomness just means that life is ripe with possibility. Maintain optimism. And if you can do that, then you can also just say FUCK IT, and DANCE. All this not even mentioning how the music underneath these lyrics are so uplifting that I can't even begin to describe it except by saying that my heart is practically jumping out of my chest every time I hear it. This whole thing begins at 13:47, and kicks off with a hearty ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR! Only Sufjan Stevens could countdown to the meat of a song at the fucking 13:47 minute mark. Jesus Christ.
Anyways, I could go on about this album, but I'll save some of it for next year. In the meantime, please, listen to this album if you get the chance, even if Illinois is in your personal Top Ten and you are afraid of what the anti-Illinois would sound like. Just try it. Sufjan might surprise you.
The Age of Adz
Sufjan Stevens
2010
Okay, so this is the third time I'll be writing about this wonderful, strange, bonkers album. Third of four, really. The first time was a review for my school newspaper. The less said about that, the better (especially the forced-pun of a headline: "Sufjan Gives Listeners Swift Kick in the Adz"). The second was when I named it the second best album of 2010. Let's be clear: the only reason The Age of Adz wasn't named the best album of 2010 is because it was released the same year as probably the best album of all time (The Monitor, see y'all in 2021 to discuss it). The fourth will be when I'm writing about this again in a little less than two years as part of PoYB's planned BEST MUSIC OF THE DECADE EXTRAVAGANZA.
So, welcome to Joe's Age of Adz reflections, Part III.
I suppose I'll start where I usually start when talking about this album. The single most exciting thing about The Age of Adz is that, in 75 minutes, you get to hear Sufjan completely tear down his entire musical persona. Illinois this is not. Good luck finding a banjo in the mix here. Our indie rock Boy Scout died a horrific death on Age of Adz, suffocated under miles of reverb and computer glitches and swear words.
There are people who hate this album, avowed Sufjan acolytes who fucking despise this shit. And on one hand, I can totally sympathize. I was right there with them in the mid-'00s, completely enthralled with the serene tales of love and loss through the eyes of various fictional and non-fictional mid-westerners. It was nerdy, it was literature in song form, it was fucking beautiful.
And in the year or two after Illinois' release, there was this prevalent thought: "There are going to be FORTY-EIGHT MORE of these fucking things." Sufjan Stevens created Michigan and Illinois and it looked like damn sure that he was really going to complete his 50 States Project. I, for one, was fucking excited.
But then half a decade went by, and at that pace, Sufjan was going to be like 479 years old before he completed this hypothetical project. But still, we held on to hope. And then, in 2010, Age of Adz dropped.
It wasn't a state. Nobody fucking knew what it was, but it definitely wasn't that. So, look, I get it. I understand the disappointment one could feel.
But I will never agree with it. Because that whole narrative avoids the fact that The Age of Adz is fucking mammoth beast of an album. It's unstoppable.
Here's one way to describe it: if Illinois was Sufjan writing a grammatically-perfect blog post on Wordpress about the peculiarities of different fonts, the Age of Adz is Sufjan banging away on his keyboard in all caps, no periods, typing word vomit on Xanga about how much he hates himself and wants to die.
This is maximalism in its finest form. There are no quiet moments. I mean, sure, there are points when, like, the drums drop out, or the vocals take a breather, but there is ALWAYS something happening here. I can't imagine what it took to get all these fucking tiny little bleeps and bloops in the perfect order. Five years in between albums well-spent, I guess.
Clearly, there are two songs in here that we should single out as not only great songs, but also as capital-I Important in the music canon.
The first is the penultimate track, "I Want to Be Well." This song stands out for just how clearly Sufjan declares that everything is different now, and the old Sufjan is gone for good. The climax: "I'M NOT FUCKING AROUND!" There really isn't another F-word in the history of music as breathtaking as this. Maybe "Fuck the Police"? (Yes, I'm comparing Sufjan Stevens to N.W.A.) I could be wrong here, but I can't recall Sufjan dropping the F-bomb at any point in any song prior to "I Want to Be Well." He was a little church boy before this. With "I Want to Be Well," he becomes a man. It's fucking wild.
The second, obviously, is the final track, "Impossible Soul." Where in the world do I start with this one? It's over 25 minutes long, a multi-suite epic of a song. It's fluid; the changes between suites happen so naturally you have to really be paying attention to know when it's even happening. And the middle part of this song is one of the greatest pieces of music of all time. I think if it was its own song, it'd be my favorite song of all time, full stop.
The lyrics legitimately make me choke up every time I hear them: "In the wrong life / everything is chance... In the right life / it's a miracle, / Possibility, / Do you wanna dance?" Basically, it's saying—in the most Sufjan Stevens way possible—that life may seem like it's all random, but if you look at in the right way, that randomness just means that life is ripe with possibility. Maintain optimism. And if you can do that, then you can also just say FUCK IT, and DANCE. All this not even mentioning how the music underneath these lyrics are so uplifting that I can't even begin to describe it except by saying that my heart is practically jumping out of my chest every time I hear it. This whole thing begins at 13:47, and kicks off with a hearty ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR! Only Sufjan Stevens could countdown to the meat of a song at the fucking 13:47 minute mark. Jesus Christ.
Anyways, I could go on about this album, but I'll save some of it for next year. In the meantime, please, listen to this album if you get the chance, even if Illinois is in your personal Top Ten and you are afraid of what the anti-Illinois would sound like. Just try it. Sufjan might surprise you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
If this album sounds interesting, try this song: "Vesuvius"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stray Observations
- It's hard to overstate how important those last those last two tracks, but I sure did try, didn't I? Might've given the short shrift to tracks 1-9. Sorry about that. Adz is one of those rare albums that the whole is equally as great as the sum of its parts, so make sure you check out the whole 75 minutes, not just the last half hour.
- I've never seen Sufjan in concert. I wonder if he even bothers playing any of these songs. It seems impossible to play live, doesn't it?
- Also, does it annoy anyone that I refer to Sufjan Stevens as "Sufjan" multiple times above? It would probably bother me as an outsider. Isn't it annoying the Dave Matthews Band fanatics refer to them as "Dave"? Am I giving myself a pass because "Sufjan" is infinitely rarer a name than "Dave"?
- FRONT COVER: An Aztec-looking figure, symmetrical, bright, provocative perhaps? Per wiki, "The Age of Adz" and the cover painting are taken from the works of some wacko prophet/artist from Louisiana, Royal Robertson. Sufjan allegedly got really into this guy's work around this time. I mean, there was a song about seeing a UFO on Illinois, so I can't really say I'm surprised that the fantastical and the out-of-this-world fascinates Sufjan.
- I wonder if I should give the Sufjan Stevens album Enjoy Your Rabbit a try. I've always avoided it because it doesn't sound like it appeal to me in the slightest. But it also sounds like a trial run for Age of Adz. Hmmm... maybe one day.
NEXT TIME: Aim and Ignite by fun.
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