Got any room on the bandwagon for me?
Up until four days ago, today was to be the official release date for Sufjan Stevens’ new opus, Come On Feel The Illinoise! It’s been moved off again for another month because of issues related to copyright – a touch ironic for an artist whose success will have much to do with MP3 bloggers, who in turn have their/our own issues with ‘Fair Use.’
For fear of joining the madness of the crowd on this one, I have to give Illinoise my absolute highest recommendation. Stevens, who says that he will do an album on every state, here shows that he may be up to actually pulling out the mammoth task he’s set for himself.
Stevens’ most remarkable achievement is to convincingly breathe life into what could be a stale Disney-fied concept, like an “It’s A Small World” ride for the 21st century. As a person who has spent less than a week in my life in Illinois, I feel confident that this album provides me with a kaleidoscopic vision of the real life and history of the state, not just some simplified pop history version. Stevens’ ability to do this probably stems from his background in Creative Writing, as the closest analogues I can think of are all novels; two that leap to mind are Russell Banks’ Cloudsplitter and Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex. This isn’t some stereotypical portrayal of whining Cubs fans and closed stockyards; rather, Illinoise depicts a full breathing life of the mind of the state, both its historical undercurrents and modern day truth of its citizens’ lives.
Illinoise sees Stevens veering a little from his approach on 2003′s Welcome To Michigan, mostly because there was far more personal material available to him. It will be interesting to see if he’s able to keep his interest in the research and impersonality that this project will force him to keep up. And then there’s the material itself; it’s difficult to see how Stevens might get such complete works out of Wyoming or Vermont, while California, New York, Texas and Mississippi are such rich subjects that you could go on for years on each.
To make the 50 States Project happen, it will undoubtedly have to be the work of Stevens’ life. Can we get this man a MacArthur Fellowship so he doesn’t have to tour behind every record? If he’s able to keep this up, surely a Pulitzer is not out of bounds. I’m not kidding. This promises to be as major and important an American work as Angels In America or anything else you can think of.
Oh, and the music’s pretty great too. Blending pop dramatics, traditional American idioms – will he do zydeco for Louisiana and tejano for Texas? – with the rhythmic intricacy of Steve Reich & Stereolab, Illinoise is at its core a great listen, even at 75 minutes.
I can’t wait to see this as live performance later this month, and you shouldn’t miss it either if you believe in this project. Without any genius grants coming soon, let’s Save Our Sujfan!
[Soundtrack]
Sujfan Stevens – Come on! Feel the Illinoise! -Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition -Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream.mp3
Sufjan Stevens tour dates from Pollstar
Be sure to search NPR after July 6 to check out a new song,”The Lord God Bird.” NPR challenged Stevens to come up with a song on Brinkley, Arkansas based on a few phone calls to locals about the town’s history, and this will be the result.
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