New Sufjan Stevens Album

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I enjoyed it. Beautiful and autumnal music. Yet, the christian overtones are disconcerting. I enjoyed Stevens take on the Springsteen-u-like working class heros of Michigans yet the singing praises to God - I don't know - I guess it is a little closer to Belle and Sebastian playing bluegrass hillbilly songs but why do I feel like he wants to convert and not entertain?

― Jimmy the Saint (Jimmy the Saint), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:00 (twenty-two years ago)

"Who's heard"

"Whose herd"

― Shep, Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Musically, I like it even more than 'Michigan,' but I haven't spent enough time with it yet to pay attention to the lyrics. Evangelical? Well, he's part of the Familie.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I was actually interested in hearing him until your mention of disconcerting christian overtones. But then again, i'm not bothered by gospel, so who knows.

― Shep, Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:14 (twenty-two years ago)

It's funny that alot of hardcore music fans will tolerate all manner of piggish misogyny, asshole behavior, violence, whatever...but anything vaguely Christian makes everyone uncomfortable (I do this too, so I'm not saying I'm above it or whatever....)

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm friends with some of the female back-up singers and have heard some pretty crazy stories about shows also involving Danielson people and weird hippy youth preachers and blessing bicycles and such. I went to one related show and whole thing totally freaked me out.

but then I saw him play a CMJ thing and it was actually quite good, smart and well arranged pop.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:24 (twenty-two years ago)

So....Danielson Famile is serious? I've never been able to tell if it was an elaborate put-on or not....what do your friends think?

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 29 January 2004 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

ah christians, they're the worst. not like anything good has ever been a result of inspiration from the gospels.

― keith m (keithmcl), Friday, 30 January 2004 05:14 (twenty-two years ago)

The Xtian stuff actually adds an errie layer--one usually thinks of this sort of stuff--although it strides over various sorts of stuff--as secular.

A whispery voice praising God...and banjos.

― Ian Grey (Ian_G), Friday, 30 January 2004 06:32 (twenty-two years ago)

ah christians, they're the worst. not like anything good has ever been a result of inspiration from the gospels.

so much for western art, soul music and post-coltrane jazz, then, eh?

better that we should have "christians," however earnest, than unthinking adulation of moronic misanthropes like david banner. if endlessly screaming "bitch" and "nigga" for the length of an album constitutes fun, then i am more than happy to hate fun.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 30 January 2004 07:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I have no problem with people being religious, it's when you go to a show in what used to be a garage behind a bar in brooklyn and everyone's smiling all funny and telling people to hold hands and talking about how much they love god that I start to feel a little uncomfortable.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 30 January 2004 08:15 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, but isn't it strange how people don't seem to have a problem about aretha franklin doing exactly the same thing at her gigs? why is that so?

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 30 January 2004 08:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i just dont know why it should matter if danielson family or stevens being christian matters beyond how they use it in their art (in the sense of successfully using it). also, carlin is otm -- without those pesky Christians forget all of western music as we know it, from the blues on, etc.

― jack cole (jackcole), Friday, 30 January 2004 08:30 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought keith was being sarcastic, saying its dumb to say nothing has come from the gospel

the banner album is an odd choice to criticise above, with religion, redemption, and the conflict between lifestyle and god going on there.

"I am still his child and no matter how hard I stray in the streets, or how crazy I may get on a record, I am still aspiring to do God’s work"

― Stringent Stepper (Stringent), Friday, 30 January 2004 09:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I guess the problem is that I don't actively seek out Christian music (makes the people, get together) though I suppose that 'music' is a religion). But I've been listening to alot of christian folk ala 'The Innocence Mission, Sufjan Stevens and Danielson Familie. And I have this sneaking suspicious nature of xxxtians. That's just me. The only actively relgious song is near the end of the album. The songs preceeding that are beautifully Faulkner-like written portrayals of human nature and condition which confirms my belief that Stevens is probably one of the top international folk artists.

― Jimmy the Saint (Jimmy the Saint), Friday, 30 January 2004 09:07 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah but you don't "do god's work" by screaming "bitch bitch bitch" for 40 minutes and then try to redeem yourself over the next 40 minutes. one doesn't cancel the other out. the answer is don't do the first bit to begin with.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 30 January 2004 09:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe that was part of the Christian learning process for David Banner?

'BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCH. Guys stop the tape. Wait a minute - this seems wrong. God? What can you do to help me?'

― Jimmy the Saint (Jimmy the Saint), Friday, 30 January 2004 09:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Perhaps. I think the album is more than that though. I also like the conflict between lifestyle and belief, the difficulty in reconciling the 2, which i think is easier to relate to than to someone who is all good.

― Stringent Stepper (Stringent), Friday, 30 January 2004 09:18 (twenty-two years ago)

'God is the original 'G''

― Jimmy the Saint (Jimmy the Saint), Friday, 30 January 2004 09:19 (twenty-two years ago)

hahah, Gail is my original "G" - but then again Gail Is God ;-)

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 30 January 2004 09:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I wonder who the o.g. in indie is?

― Jimmy the Saint (Jimmy the Saint), Friday, 30 January 2004 09:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Thirty years ago
He used to listen to rock n roll
Talkin' bout the way
They rocked the mic on the Sullivan show
Liked how that shit was goin' down
With his own sound
So he tried to write rhymes
Somethin' like them, his boys said,
"That ain't you Ig,
That shit sounds like them."

So he sat back, thought up a new track
Didn't fantasize, put it down on wax.
Motherfuckers got scared
Cause they weas unprepaired
Who would tell it how it really was?
Who dared?
A motherfucker from the Great Lakes (coast)
Prime Mover then a head Stooge
Down off the 94 highway
When I wrote about parties
It didn't fit
I Wanna Be Ya Dawg
That was the real shit

― Ryan Pitchfork, Friday, 30 January 2004 12:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeh that could've been better.

― Ryan Pitchfork, Friday, 30 January 2004 12:26 (twenty-two years ago)

say what you will about Aretha Franklin's religous nature or whatnot, these kids are just creepy! Maybe it's a nebulous thing that's hard for me to pinpoint, but I just felt really out of place. Christian youth freak me out anywhere, but seriously, seeing some of these bands, you feel like you're at an early Manson Family gathering. Watching gospel music, the word "cult" doesn't spring to mind.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 30 January 2004 20:02 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...

So how is he live? Worth seeing? Should I expect a bunch of "hand holding" and "blessing bicycles?" Or...?

― kickitcricket (kickitcricket), Friday, 18 June 2004 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

he played my college and has a posse of young n' faithfuls in white shirts with white feathers glued on thier shoulders.
i hate jesus. the music was okay though.

― emma cleveland (emma cleveland), Friday, 18 June 2004 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

saw him play solo in ann arbor. great show.

i wish he'd play with the full Danielson Famile backing him up, tho.

― Kingfish of Burma (Kingfish), Friday, 18 June 2004 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

You mean, like this? (x-post)

http://www.junkmedia.org/images/sufjan_interview.jpg

― kickitcricket (kickitcricket), Friday, 18 June 2004 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

yes. pussies.
(ha)

― emma cleveland (emma cleveland), Friday, 18 June 2004 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Seven Swans is superb, album of the year thus far.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 18 June 2004 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

emma cleveland you have rocked my world.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 18 June 2004 18:02 (twenty-two years ago)

WHO.

IS.

THAT GIRL.

ON THE RIGHT.

― mark p (Mark P), Friday, 18 June 2004 21:53 (twenty-two years ago)

she's a replicant

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 19 June 2004 00:21 (twenty-two years ago)

she's damn hot and got the focus of my attention when i saw him live.

― big baby jesus, Saturday, 19 June 2004 04:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Was that girl in Mannequin 2: On the Run?

― David Allen (David Allen), Saturday, 19 June 2004 05:09 (twenty-two years ago)

is the one on the left Daniel Smith's sister?

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Saturday, 19 June 2004 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, also... i fell asleep to this record last night, and that's a good thing actually. really nice stuff!

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Saturday, 19 June 2004 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, the one on the left is Megan Smith. I actually think it might be Daniel's wife, Erin, on the right.

I do know how sad this makes me sound, yes.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Saturday, 19 June 2004 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I almost went to the show in Ann Arbor. Some friends went and said he didn't play with an entire big backing band, but that it was still quite moving.

― David Allen (David Allen), Saturday, 19 June 2004 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

the phrase replican comes to mind

― mark p (Mark P), Saturday, 19 June 2004 20:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Doesn't Sufjan look a little like Daniel Day Lewis circa In the Name of the Father in that pic?

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Saturday, 19 June 2004 22:44 (twenty-two years ago)

nine months pass...

yousendit?

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 11 April 2005 08:43 (twenty-one years ago)

four years pass...

the economic woes and geopolitical instabilities of the day
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124475230719107485.html

― kamerad, Saturday, 13 June 2009 21:08 (seventeen years ago)

lol, that is so depressing

― boys (Tape Store), Saturday, 13 June 2009 21:53 (seventeen years ago)

sixteen years pass...

Ignored Seven Swans when it came out, like I did with just about all of his albums. Listening now for the first time and about half of it is great. Songs are mostly too long, but the ones I've liked so far ("Sister", "He Woke Me Up Again", "In the Devil's Territory") are quite lovely.

― j.o.h.n. in evanston (john. a resident of chicago.), Wednesday, 6 August 2025 16:59 (ten months ago)

It was so cool to see him in concert around 2007 and hear all these amazing songs which I thought were destined for a new album somewhere down the line but actually were on Seven Swans which I somehow didn’t know existed

― frogbs, Wednesday, 6 August 2025 23:56 (ten months ago)

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New Sufjan Stevens Album - Whose Heard