I Was On The Floor
A year ago I was thick in a fever dream, alone in an apartment listening to Illinois. In that two-week stretch I thought about things for first times, about what scared me and what I loved and especially about what I'd done. I became transfixed upon the concept of empathy, and, ultimately, grace - it scared me and it broke my heart to consider this strange love I felt. Or, I should say, it was my awareness of a love I hadn't before considered which scared me. It was wonderful, and I had Stevens' masterful explorations of faith largely to thank.
It saddens me then, or perhaps more accurately it tires me to see lately this dry, frustrating and mostly ungracious discussion of Stevens (and music in general). I should note that this isn't anything new, it's my increasing familiarity with a world of essays and acadamics (my choice, I guess) to blame. I've absolutely had it with snobbishness and speculation and accusation and a million things I just can't understand. Does he mean every word? Is he speaking from experience? How dare he have so many ideas! You could call fiction "lying," but that would be extreme and silly - so why then question or, worse, condemn these stories? Especially when they're so clearly moving? Come on.
I'm glad Stevens has released The Avalanche. He's got more to tell, I'm not done thinking. My favorite part? Right now, the guitar solo in "Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in his Hair." It sounds tired, as tired as I feel about the seemingly ubiquitous arguing lately. I've never heard it sung with more appropriate resignation as in this song: "I don't care."
It saddens me then, or perhaps more accurately it tires me to see lately this dry, frustrating and mostly ungracious discussion of Stevens (and music in general). I should note that this isn't anything new, it's my increasing familiarity with a world of essays and acadamics (my choice, I guess) to blame. I've absolutely had it with snobbishness and speculation and accusation and a million things I just can't understand. Does he mean every word? Is he speaking from experience? How dare he have so many ideas! You could call fiction "lying," but that would be extreme and silly - so why then question or, worse, condemn these stories? Especially when they're so clearly moving? Come on.
I'm glad Stevens has released The Avalanche. He's got more to tell, I'm not done thinking. My favorite part? Right now, the guitar solo in "Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in his Hair." It sounds tired, as tired as I feel about the seemingly ubiquitous arguing lately. I've never heard it sung with more appropriate resignation as in this song: "I don't care."
by brian at 7/11/2006 08:30:00 PM
3 Comments:
Stop picking my brain! Again, I concur. Who says that everything Sufjan sings about is personal? They're simply and flatly terrific stories set to wondrous melodies. "The Avalanche," as can be expected from an outtakes album, is unfocused and meanders, but it reaches some great heights that I can't help but think that there won't be another album this year that can match its best moments.
hes a good guy.
i was just thinking about the first time i heard sufjan, specifically illinoise, and i remember thinking, wtf?? i'd never heard anything like it, it was so unusual and compelling. so i don't get the complaints, etc., about the avalanche. of course it's going to sound like illinoise, it's all part of the same whole. i can't tell you how much i look forward to learning the intricacies of harmony and image and instrumentation that abound in this work. this music is unlike any other. sufjan's voice is singular and, let's face it, expansive. for which i am grateful.
thanks for writing so eloquently about it. in fact, you always write incredibly well about how the music makes you feel.
so does tino.
Post a Comment
<< Home