Sufjan Stevens
Carrie & Lowell
[Asthmatic Kitty]
Forget the erstwhile States project that is so often identified with him; what defines Sufjan Steven is the single-minded intensity he brings to any project he works on. An album of violent gravity, Carrie & Lowell applies this intransigence to themes that only the greatest songwriters have been able to render: death, family, grief, eternity.
Rich with mythological and Biblical allusions, this is a bare-essentials record that examines the complexity of love and the soul in the face of death. Its relentless introspection makes for an acutely disturbing experience. Sufjan sings to his dead mother, who struggled with schizophrenia through his life, to his father, to God. But his questions, prayers and lamentations are universal: ‘How do I live with your ghost?’, ‘I wonder did you love me at all?’, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’.
For an album pivoting off profound doubt, its musical expression is one of complete assuredness. After the gestalt firework display that was Age of Adz, Carrie & Lowell, like Sun Kil Moon’s Benji before it, is a triumph of intimate, vocals-first production. Its reverb washes, vocal harmonies, plucked strings are redolent of Grizzly Bear’s church-hall psychedelia, or, most acutely, Sufjan’s own Seven Swans. On Carrie & Lowell Sufjan may wrestle with the ephemerality of the material world, but he has created something that feels staggeringly immortal.
Words: Daniel Gray
Like this? Try these:
Sun Kil Moon – Benji
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I See A Darkness
Elliott Smith – Roman Candle
