This week, due to popular demand (from @lucytrew), I will be starting to do marks out of five for albums. This will be highly unscientific, as I'm not really a fan of grading art, but we'll see how it goes.
Sufjan Stevens – The Age Of Adz
This one took a couple of weeks to be delivered, so I actually forgot it was coming. The excitement I felt when I opened the parcel and pulled this out was sadly, though, quickly overtaken by mild confusion and disappointment.
All of Sufjan's earlier material, some of which I have previously reviewed is a blend of prog and folk in almost equal measure, and that sound is what defines Sufjan as an artist. This album, however, is electronic. Sometimes start to use little electronic sounds as they can afford cool hardware that they couldn't before; Sufjan hasn't done that. The vocals are similar to previous material (but with layers of added effects), and there's still a fair amount of brass, strings and woodwind, but nearly all that would have been piano, guitar or drums in previous albums has been replaced by synths. Lots and lots of synths.
The first of two redeeming songs (for me) were the penultimate track I Want To Be Well, which is slightly tarnished by uncharacteristic F-word repeated multiple times. The second is the closing track, Impossible Soul, a progressive 25-minute wig-out. Although in keeping with the electronic stuff, the parts of this song (songs within songs, if you will) were considerably better than in the rest of the album, and I liked it. Unfortunately, this track is also tarnished somewhat, this time by a Jason Derulo-esque autotuned-beyond-belief section.
I imagine there was an element of tongue-in-cheek-ness to Sufjan doing what sounds like a remix album of songs we'd never heard, but I can't help thinking it was a step a little two far outside the box. If you want some Sufjan Stevens to listen to, get Illinoise or Michigan or Seven Swans. Or feel free to totally ignore me, I'm not an authority on anything.
My rating: 2.8/5 (sorry Sufjan)
j.r.
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