Albums that should be overrated but aren’t: Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

Banned version of album cover with copyrighted Superman image. Naughty naughty.

I think the full name of the album is Sufjan Stevens invites you to: Come on feel the Illinoise! but there’s no way I’m calling it that.

This album is an absolute staple of the indie-folk genre. If someone called this their favourite album I’d regard it as a fairly generic thing to say, like when people call The Shawshank Redemption their favourite film. Quality, but a bit of a safe choice.

Everyone raves about this album. And that makes me sceptical.

In most cases, artists with a fairly sizeable discography have some lesser known stuff under their belt that is actually better than the most succesful release. That’s not the case here, though. I hate to dismiss the future efforts of this young, ambitious songwriter, but I daresay Illinois is, and probably always will be, Sufjan Steven’s masterpiece.

I want to be able to say it’s overrated. I look at those pretentious, five-line track titles that are entirely too wordy to memorise, and I think he’s trying to hard. Even the acknowledgements and copyright information on the inside sleeve are long-winded. It makes me roll my eyes a little. And I look at that seventy-something-minute running time, and I think: surely there’s not enough good stuff here for me to want to keep listening for that long. But there is. And I do keep listening.

And then there’s always the hipster heartthrob factor. The Soof is young, talented, and heartbreakingly handsome, with a gentle and agreeable persona… and because of that I often feel like his fanbase is overcrowded with dodgy fangirls who worship his every note. Is that fair? Probably not.

Anyway, I must admit to Sufjan’s skills as a gifted musician and delicate lyricist. This is on full display on Illinois, which is a thoroughly charming album, and it pretty much deserves all the praise that it gets.

As a concept album based on places and history of the state of Illinois, it has a wonderful nostalgic feeling. I’ve never been to Illinois myself but some people have said the album does a remarkable job of capturing the feeling of the place. The same has also been said about his earlier effort, Michigan, based on his home state. I’d like to see him to continue the “50 states project” but it seems like he’s sick of it already.

On Illinois, Sufjan’s lyrics are evocative, sprinkled with wit, and often highly spiritual. It’s not “Christian music” - the focus isn’t on worship or evangelism, but Sufjan’s personal faith spills out, sometimes in a sly “did he just say bible study?” kind of way, but mainly through biblical allusions and pieces of storytelling that relate directly and indirectly to Christ. You don’t need to be a Christian to appreciate it, but I feel I get a lot more out of it as a believer. The apocalyptic The Seer’s Tower is shiver-inducing.

The album is full of melodies that can be hauntingly beautiful or they can be catchy and hummable. And have I not mentioned the grand instrumentation? Some of the tracks are quiet, but for a significant portion of the time, trumpets and strings and electric guitars and acoustic guitars and banjos and recorders and all kinds of percussion resound. Large choirs serve as background singers. The results of all this can vary between ‘cute’, ‘kitsch’, and ‘epic’. This is indeed ‘folk’ music, because it sounds like an entire village of ‘folk’ were needed to record most of it. I dig that. Stripped back acoustic-n-vocal ain’t my style. I like the sprawl.

Basically, I love this album, and regard it as an absolute a treat to listen to.