Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz

I remember when I first heard that Sufjan Stevens was undergoing a "50 States Project" in which he was going to release one album for every U.S State after the releases of "Greetings From Michigan" and "Come on, Feel the Illionoise!". I got really, really excited for further albums as those two are probably still my favorites. I remember wondering which state would be next, would it be California? Or Minnesota? Or Maine? Then he released "The BQE" around this time last year, and suddenly I wasn't so excited anymore. I hated The BQE and I began to dread any further disappointing releases, at that point I didn't care which state was next. To my relief I later learned that the 50 States Project was just a joke, and many months later he released "All Delighted People" this past August, and I liked it. I began to look forward to release of "The Age of Adz", which isn't to be physicaly released until tommorow but has been released electronically to those who pre-ordered it, so naturally now it's all over the internet.

I'm going to get the obvious out of the way and just say that this is his first album with elements of electronics. There's use of drum pads and synthesizers all over the place. Of course in theory the idea of adding electronics to his trademark baroque orchestral/folk music sounds like it only go one of two ways: disastrous or incredible. Rest assured; he incorporates it in very well, as it appears enough for me to be aware of it's existence, however I can tell he still made sure not to allow it to take charge, overpower and become the primary focus of the album (minus the track "Get Real Get Right").

On the other hand, this album really suffered a lot in that it didn't have as many of those grand orchestral moments, where the power of all the instruments coming together wows you so much you feel like it should be the soundtrack to a montage of you trekking through the wilderness of North America. I found those moments were a lot more common in his previous works, this album doesn't feel as full in sound as often as before, with the obvious exception of the 25 minute masterpiece "Impossible Soul", which, despite it's long length (it's a well known fact that I'm not a fan of long songs) is my favourite song on the album. Having both it's quiet, minimal and loud, full moments, of both classical and electronic instruments (even including a vocoder), it was a great way to conclude this album.

I was really liking this album by the time I finished listening to it, especially the introduction of electronic instruments, and it reminded me that despite how bad The BQE was, Stevens has still got it.

7.5/10

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