Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois was an intricate celebration of life and Americana that raised the bar impossibly high for fellow singer-songwriter contenders. That was half a decade ago. Since then, he’s given us an album of “outtakes,” a five-disc anthology of Christmas songs and a soundtrack for his film about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Those releases were great and all — albeit somewhat random — but they left us wondering: Will our erratic hero ever release another Michigan or Seven Swans?
After years of anticipation, The Age of Adz answers this question with a resounding “no.” What takes the expected folk album’s place, however, is something much more intriguing.
The piano and pizzicato strings of “Futile Devices” opens the album with a familiar delicacy, but quickly reveal themselves as a bait-and-switch for the surprising sounds that filter through the rest of it: glitchy electronic beats, sweeping orchestrations and epic choruses. No subtle acoustics or simple melodies here — Adz is a dense, beautiful mess.
“Too Much” is quirky, smiling pop, but Stevens’s sheer joy and earnestness keeps it from becoming trite or boring. The same goes for the 26-minute-long closer “Impossible Soul,” which holds our interest well into its exhilarating sing-along climax.
Even when the album descends into atmospheric chaos — as in the meandering “Now That I’m Older,” or the middle-school-marching-band title track — Adz gives way to another distinct beat or melody long before it gets tedious.
In an interview last year for Exclaim! Magazine, Stevens mentioned his descent into a full-blown existential music crisis. He brooded extensively over the purpose of a song and whether he should bother to continue with any future albums.
In Adz, this frustration is apparent. Even with 75 minutes at his disposal, there is still a sense that The Age of Adz can’t contain all that Stevens wants to say. Toward the end, “I Want To Be Well” encapsulates this meltdown, leading to a startlingly profound refrain: “I’m not fucking around/ I’m not, I’m not, I’m not fucking around.” He really isn’t. (8/10)
