Sufjan Stevens live reviews

October 2010 tour

Massey Hall, Toronto Oct 13

“Drama queen that I am, writing about love was like writing about the end of the world,”

"All Delighted People"
"Heirloom"
"Too Much"
"Futile Devices"
"Age Of Adz"
"I Walked"
"Now That I'm Older"
"Vesuvius"
"Get Real Get Right"
"Enchanting Ghost"
"The Owl And The Tanager"
"Impossible Soul"
"Chicago"
"Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois"
"John Wayne Gacy, Jr."

1. www.chartattack.com
2. www.exclaim.ca
3. www.eyeweekly.com
4. www.theglobeandmail.com

Metropolis Montreal (12 Oct)
http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette

Sufjan interviews

There's a few of these on the web for your perusal. We find Sufjan feeling as refreshed as someone would be after doing a spring clean. I'll pick out the common points in tomorrow's post, but for now here are 3 interviews. Let me know if you come across others.

1. The Quietus
Unusually Sufjan talks mainly about Christian theology, in a down-to-earth way.
2. Drowned In Sound
3. Irish Times
4. www.nytimes

Review: The Age of Adz

I'm more than a week into this now, enjoying at work, rest and play. Great on the stereo or whilst driving, but mostly this is a brilliant headphone album. My eardrums are loving this like a great massage. It might even cure my tinnitus, at the very least I'll certainly forget about it for 75 minutes running time.

It's easy to think of this as Sufjan's pop album, but it's more than that. This time it's personal and current (no songs about the Columbia Fair or his stepmother). Nearly every song in the first person addressing his current state of mind in ways that many of us can relate to. He even namechecks himself in one song. One of the most deliberate of artists, I can detect a narrative arc to the song order. I'm so looking forward to sitting down with the lyric sheet.

Futile Devices is a trademark short acoustic number that Sufjan does so well. Pity the unwary listener who doesn't realise the electric mayhem that awaits. It's a good opener but it ain't no Concerning the UFO (a track that still mesmerises five years later.)

I'm not sure that Too Much is the best introduction to this electro-classical pop album. The leading melodic motif is a little banal and I feel the tune outstays itself at six minutes plus. Never mind, it's all glory from here.

The Age of Adz is a stunning and sophisticated track, rightfully taking its place as the title track. The portentious triplet of tuba-style notes giving the song a booming gravitas onto which the random army of synthesized noises are unleashed, and just beneath it all is a plucked guitar that gradually emerges. The moment at 6:20 which the choir chimes in is as good as any orchestral climax. And the words in context are quite moving...
And when I die, when I die
I'll rot
But when I live, when I live
I'll give it all I've got

I Walked is a lovely pop song, which succeeds where Too Much fails. Who knows, this could even be a pop radio hit.

Now That I'm Older stands apart with its swirling array of treated voices backed by little more that some tickling keyboards. This song is so mature it should carry a "not for teenagers" warning. The background voices remind me a lot of Kate and Anna McGarrigle's angelic tones. It feels like one of those Sufjan slow burners that gradually become a fan favourite.

Get Real Get Right is a great pop tune with a scintillating background of Sufjan's trademark fluttering woodwinds and emphasising female choir. It works in the same way as I Walked, which similarly hits the five minute mark.

Bad Communication is more of a declamatory interlude. For me the least convincing track here.

Vesuvius feels like a welcome breather being lighter on the electronic. It's a very Sufjan song... in many respects, he even namechecks himself. I love the flutes/recorders/panpipes at the end, which makes me nostalgic for his first album, A Sun Came. Classic Sufjan. If you like how Sufjan makes you feel, this is your track. And if you love this, you should check out A Sun Came.

All For Myself's time signature seems to be derived from a 33rpm record stuck in a groove, perhaps while going backwards. In old language it would be regarded as a typical Sufjan off-kilter ballad.

I've worn out my fingertips on the desk trying get the time signatures for I Want To Be Well, this fascinating uptempo song is firstly in 7/8, briefly flirting with 4/4 in the transition then settling into a raucous 5/4 for one of the album's most notable sections, which includes the repeated declaration that "I'm not fucking around"> His voice, and the treatment thereof, is fantastic. There's a real edge to it. Six minutes of top notch Sufjan.

Which leaves us with the 25 minutes of Impossible Soul. Having experienced the 17 minute jam of Djorariah just a few weeks before, I bet I wasn't the only one expecting a similar long jam with an even longer repeat and fade out. But Sufjan confounds again! It's easier to think of this as a five song suite:
Part one is a very strong mid-paced melody, incredibly well arranged with keyboard, frantic snare-drums, chorus, and a signature Sufjan guitar solo...
part two, "don't be destracted" interrupts, led by a female voice which gives way to a multitude of horns, sounding something like the Blood Sweat and Tears of old. After 10 minutes we're into...
part three "Stupid Man", the notorious Autotune section. I like the music, a dreamlike tape loop, but I guess I'm one of many that is conditioned against Autotune, so it's hard, but really it's well done I guess and pretty brief, and soon transitions into...
part four "We Can Do Much More Together", a cheesy cheerleader chant. I could really see the media picking up on this, TV sports highlight packages and the like. Lyrically this track feels like a breath of fresh air as if Sufjan has finally managed to cast aside his various neuroses and insecurities. It winds down with a beautiful usage of electronic noises as it runs through some key changes, until...
part five "I Never Meant To Cause You Pain", an acoustic segment that perfectly mirrors the opener, Futile Devices, some 70 minutes earlier.

What a journey!

Baroque pop blog favourite albums of 2009

Not saying this is all the best music of the year, but this is the stuff I enjoyed and rated the most.

1. Various Artists: Dark Was The Night
Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, The National, Feist, The Decemberists, Bon Iver, Andrew Bird and Sufjan Stevens all contributing new material to this charity compilation. It introduced many of us to unfamiliar artists.

2. DM Stith: Heavy Ghost
Nine months after its release I still play it regularly. Beautifully played and sung music (often called psych-folk), textured with multilayered harmonies like a choir, with strings and horns punctuating the music in a sublime way.

3. The Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca
Being more baroquey and folky I don't enjoy much straight rock (electric guitar, drums etc), so this was a treat. David Longstretch's angular compositions twist and turn with unexpected drama, jagged african style guitar vying for attention with adventurous female harmonies.

4. The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love
As if enough music fans didn't despise them enough already they go and write a rock opera! The sixy-minute suite doesn't hit the mark all the time, but there are enough highlights to make an enjoyable listen, and Colin Meloy can sure write a beautiful tune when needed.

5. Gabriel Kahane: Gabriel Kahane
A little known very talented artist, a classical pianist singer/songwriter with real craft. Perhaps a little too mannered for most, but the songs are good, lyrically and musically detailed. Incidentally, it is Mr Kahane who plays the piano cadenza on Sufjan's track on Dark Was The Night.

6. Northern Howl: All That's Under the Night's Sky
A charming self-made debut from these rustic Minnesotans. Banjos, violins, trumpets give shades of Sufjan.

7. Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest (2009)
The breakout album! Whilst there's no doubting the immediacy of some tracks, I'm not sure it marks an artistic progress from Yellow House.

8. Sufjan Stevens: The BQE
His first foray into classical music is a multimedia treat. At the end of the DVD is Sufjan's first original song in several years. And it's very good!

9. St. Vincent: Actor
Annie Clark gives us another dose of quirky punchy pop. Not sure about the muddy production.

10. Patrick Watson: Wooden Arms
After the promising Close to Paradise comes this surprisingly experimental work, the Satie influence is there again, so are Watson's distinctive vocal, and so too is a lot of percussion.

Also of interest to baroque poppers

Clare & the Reasons: Arrow
Essentially now a duo with unkempt French husband Olivier, this contains some cute compositions but lacks the weight and development of some of the tunes on 2006's The Movie.

Papa Rufus!

In musical terms this is a momentous night for me. Let me explain...

I've always loved music in its multitude of forms, from my rock and pop teenage years, to my explorations of jazz, blues and country in my early twenties. I started to explore classical music and at the age of 28 I 'discovered' opera.

There's literally hundreds of years of classical music and operas to be explored and I managed to avoid listening to ANY non-classical/opera music for 12 years. My rock and pop collection gathered dust, except for the 600 LPs that my mum donated to the firemen's jumble sale. (Kids, learn from me...take your music with you when you leave home!)

At some point in 2004 there was an interview on a TV arts program with a guy named Rufus Wainwright. I'd heard the name before, but it didn't mean anything to me. The interview took place in the Royal Opera House, London, and this singer turned out to be a passionate fan of Giuseppe Verdi and opera in general. That piqued my interest! Even more so when I learnt that he was the son of Loudon Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle.

Who they, you might ask? Well, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, folky Montreal sisters, were my favourite performers from the late seventies. I had all their albums and had seen them in concert many times. If you look at the sleeve notes of their first classic eponymous debut album you'll see a credit to the babysitter for looking after baby Rufus!

Man, I suddenly felt old, but I checked out the recordings of this 2nd generation Wainwright/McGarrigle and found a fascinating artist. His sophisticated pop made constant references to classical music and opera, sometimes obvious, sometimes very subtle.

A couple of years ago the news came that the Metropolitan Opera in New York had commissioned Rufus to write an opera. Astonishingly, the relationship seemed to founder because Rufus wanted to write his opera in French, not English. (Strange, I've been to the Met several times and never heard an opera sung in English!)

Thankfully, a canny person at the Manchester International Festival stepped into the breach and offered to stage the premiere performances of Prima Donna.

I haven't heard or seen it yet, but the preview clips sound fantastic. 19th century French opera, complete with REAL TUNES!

I doubt I'll get to Manchester for a performance, but I'm pleased to see that the production is already scheduled for London, Melbourne and Toronto.

If you wondered why Rufus has sprouted a beard, I think the answer lies here, with Papa Verdi:

Following on from Melbourne Tourist Board use, and not put off by its creepy use in The Strangers, Victoria's Secrets has used the Sprout and the Bean for the new TV ad. I like it, the filming suits the music well.

Heavy Ghost, by DM Stith

ALBUM REVIEW

1 Isaac's Song 1:38
2 Pity Dance 4:21
3 Creekmouth 4:10
4 Pigs 4:54
5 Spirit Parade 2:23
6 BMB 2:43
7 Thanksgiving Moon 3:59
8 Fire of Birds 5:13
9 Morning Glory Cloud 3:56
10 GMS 2:35
11 Braid of Voices 5:26
12 Wig 2:35
How many things?
How many things can I say to you?
And expect shock-horror, shock-horror, shock-horror, hallelujah
To descend again in sweet oblation
Your God's a lion, recently fed, drowsy
And the body, the body, the body, the body, the body, it waits for obliteration

I'm not very good at reviewing at the best of times, but I've just encountered an album that leaves me speechless and wordless. Where the hell has this guy come from?

Baroque pop nerds, and Shara Worden fans will know the name, Bring me the Workhorse was recorded on his laptop, and if you own the album you'll see him listed in the credits. Ok, so he's on the fringe of the Sufjan Asthmatic Brooklyn posse. Perhaps you won't be surprised to learn that he comes from a musical (and churchy) family. He's musical. That much is clear. VERY musical. So the folks at Asthmatic Kitty asked him to make an album... and here it is. Possibly the most astonishing debut album I've ever heard.

It starts with an austere somewhat classical clash of piano and voice. It's harsh, confrontational, and says this album demands your attention. Put it on, and listen, damn you! So Isaac's Song, which is very much the prelude rather than a song, soon gives way to Pity Dance a tense and eerie waltz-time tune (the album's lead single), led by a picked/strummed classical guitar and one of the most effortless and effective tenor/falsetto voices I've heard since Jeff Buckley. The layering of concert-grand, electronics, electric guitar, harmonies, hand-claps sets the theme of what is to come: Lush, dark, dramatic, chilling, intriguing, never a moment when it's less than interesting.

The drama continues with Creekmouth. This song consolidates the soundscape, tribal rhythms replacing the concert piano. The ensemble voices are present again, very much the signature feature of this album. Pigs moves things along, by now you should be familiar with the complex and entrancing world of Stith. The multi-tracked background vocals are amazing.

If you find Animal Collective fine in theory but not in practice, perhaps you should try Spirit Parade a rhythmic drama, not for casual listening! After barely two minutes it yields to the gentle vocal piano-basedBMB. Bass clarinets chime in beautifully after the first verse, and a shimming string quartet adds further lustre. Then, it's as if nothing else can be said, the song rapidly dissolves into chordal shifts and dissonance.

Stith's understated but accomplished guitar appears again in Thanksgiving Moon, augmented by a meticulously charted horn section and marimba. The tune is impressive, carried by a scintillating background chorus.

Fire of Birds contains the most uplifting chorus, although I find it a little pedestrian and repetitive. "We danced like we were all on fire." goes the refrain.

Morning Glory Cloud is as close as Stith comes to a guitar and vocal style, and he transcends the form with a captivating 3/4 rhythm. This track seems to have a part-two piano section which tonally hovers in the Supertramp/Steely Dan realm for a few moments.

GMS is a Sufjaneque piano interlude, think Redmond.

Braid of Voices is one of the album's big hitters. A big, dramatic and melancholy tune...
from the back of my head tied to the back of my head tied
to the back of my head tied...
a braid of voices: david, david
Those last lines, saying his own name are chilling.

Anyone who has ever been to a classical concert will recognise the opening of Wig as Marla Hansen's viola tunes up. It's a meditative drone, and a perfect ending.

In summary, I cannot recommend this album highly enough, particularly for Sufjan fans impatiently waiting for his next installment. Buy it!

ps... and David, if you read this... nice booklet, I get the joke! Please, please, please get some signed prints to sell at your gigs, I'll be at the Dublin date.