Sufjan Stevens – Michigan 2LP

Description

Sufjan Stevens‘s third album is a charming homage to his home state of Michigan. Filled with heartbreak, the album cryptically addressesStevens‘ frustration with the notorious job market in the city of Flint in a lovely ballad that opens the record, and documents the depressing struggle the city of Detroit has fought to once again attain the elegance it had prior to the riots in the late ’60s; however, it also touches on a brighter side, as in the cascading “Say Yes! to M!ch!gan!” Its title is a reference to the campaign adopted by the state in the 1980s and serves as the centerpiece as well asStevens‘ attachment and amour for the state he is from. Musically,Stevensoften plays hisJim O’RourkeandStereolabcards, riffing along with complex polyphony in building loops and dynamics, but he also frequently imports lightly strummed guitars and stark banjo picking to break up the album and give it a rustic northern folk aesthetic.Stevenscomfortably handles nearly every instrument on the album — an impressive task that includes various keyboards, woodwinds, guitars, and percussions — but also enlisted the help ofMegan,Elin, andDaniel Smithfromthe Danielson Famileto help out with vocal duties, and the outcome is a haunting and hypnotic studio opus certainly worth getting lost in. -All Music Guide