Whats your favorite Sufjan Stevens album? Personally I love how every album he does is so different to his last...

Whats your favorite Sufjan Stevens album? Personally I love how every album he does is so different to his last, also his christmas albums are a lot of fun.

C&L. I just never could get into any of his other ones.

I was very apprehensive towards C&L upon release. I didn't want him reverting to his old indy shit after he grew so much as a songwriter and composer. After a few listens though, I fell in love with it. The nuanced synths and general atmosphere is like some sorta chilly stasis. Beautiful album all around. That being said, I think his All Delighted People ep and The Age of Adz are his finest works. He works wonders with the compositions for a wide array of instruments. I honestly can't enjoy much of his pre 2009 work.. it all just sounds dated, under developed, and even adolescent. He's grownj into a timeless and more patient songwriter and I'm hyped for that planet album he worked on that's coming out later in summer.

1 Enjoy Your Rabbit
2 Silver & Gold
3 Age of Adz
These are my top 3 projects of his. Gotta give a shout out to Michigan and Sisyphus though, also love those.

Sisyphus was a great collab but still doesn't hold a torch to Sufjan's best works. Silver and Gold has some of his finest song writing (Chirstmas Unicorn, Happy Karma Christmas, Silver and Gold..) but is ultimately just too damn long.. I know that's part of the records theme of extravagance and what not, I just can't really enjoy it all the way through

I only listen to it in December anyways so I don't get too frustrated with the length. Just love how every style he's ever dabbled in shows up on there and the production is phenomenal all things considered.

I havent been able to get into Sufjan as much as I like too. I've only really liked Carrie & Lowell so far. I've downloaded Illinoise, Seven Swans, and The Age of Adz but none of those albums have grabbed me as much as Carrie & Lowell. Death With Dignity and Should Have Known Better just sound simply beautiful. I guess I'll try Silver and Gold next.

Not only is it my favorite Suf album, it's one of my favorite albums of all time. I'm probably the only one who loves it this much; even Sufjan himself basically treated it like a collection of bullshit miscellanea and called it an EP even though it's still like 45 minutes long after you take out one of the versions of the title track and even though it works perfectly as an album. Seriously, the title track and Djohariah are better longform pieces than Impossible Soul (yeah I said it), The Owl and the Tanager is fucking heartbreaking, and there are two versions of the same track and it's somehow not redundant.

tl;dr this album is severely underrated

not even Seven Swans?

Funny how popular C&L is, you'd think after Age of Adz and Illinois people would have thought going back to singer-songwriter shenanigans was a step back for him. Good to see people were on board, I'm not a huge fan of the album like others but I do enjoy it a lot.

redpill me on Djohariah. it's the only long Sufjan song I really don't care for. feels very tedious.

It's not my favourite if someone asked me but I do think that this is Sufjan's finest work. I'd personally put it behind Age of Adz.

I only listened to illinoise and I really enjoyed it
Where should I go from there?

I don't know bro, I guess the guitar's pretty good what with the soloing and the great raw, scratchy tone but if you don't care for guitar wankery it's not for you. Also the lyrics are about his sister surviving an abusive relationship or whatever so it's pretty emotional.

It's cool if you don't like it, I don't care much for Impossible Soul even though everyone else creams themselves over it

That's a hard question. He never really made another album that sounded like illinoise although I will admit I'm not a Sufjan stan.

Seven Swans and Carrie and Lowell are the ones I can't really get into. All of his other albums are more textured and arranged more interestingly and those two are just kind of straightforward singer-songwriter stuff. A Sun Came kind of fits that description too but something about it I like more. If I had to pick a favorite it would be Age of Adz.

Michigan

michigan > all delighted > illinois > AOA > c&l

Any man who puts Michigan over Illinois is okay in my book

Illinois > Any other album by Suf

My Top 3

1. The Age of Adz
2. All Delighted People EP
3. Illinois

If you want more Illinois, listen to the Avalanche. Listen to both Michigan and Age of Adz next, and try to reflect on which you thought was better. after this, I would say you'd have the proper context to do the rest. Definitely listen to C&L. If you want more stripped back than Michigan, go with Seven Swans. If you want more experimental beep boops, go with Enjoy Your Rabbit

from the mouth of gabriel is a top tier Sufj song

don't tell me i'm the only patrician here

How come whenever I try to talk about Illinois with people, they always talk about the tracks from the first half; like Feel the Illinoise!, John Wayne Gacy Jr., Jacksonville, Chicago, Casimir Pulaski Day.

I mean, these are great songs, but for me, the real magic of the album comes in from Prairie Fire through the end, which is consistently god-tier imo. To be fair, people do talk about Predatory Wasp (my favorite song) and Night Zombies, yet most people I talk to consider much of the last half to be filler and weak compared to the first half, yet I feel like the second half is what secures it as my favorite Sufjan album.

Thoughts, anyone?