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October 24, 2018 9:46 AM Subscribe
20. CONCERNING THE UFO SIGHTING NEAR HIGHLAND, ILLINOISAll 293 Sufjan Stevens songs ranked, by Peyton Thomas.
Illinois remains Sufjan’s most high-profile project, and the place where new listeners are usually instructed to go; “Concerning the UFO…” is a wardrobe without a rear wall, a fitting point of entry into something new and strange and lovely. I’m reminded of a close friend who, last year, underwent a long-awaited top surgery. He was lying on the table, waiting for anaesthetic, when the doctor asked him what he’d like to listen to as he went under. He chose this song. He fell asleep to the gentle, ambulatory trills of Sufjan’s piano, and he woke up in a new body.
Previously: The Niche, a website for five people.
Stevens has become to me the musical equivalent of a TV show that I know is great, but is like fifteen seasons long and despite so many people whose opinions I respect loving it I know I'll never get it done. Just thinking about this article is giving me anxiety.
...someone recommend me three songs?
posted by ominous_paws at 10:14 AM on October 24, 2018 [7 favorites]
...someone recommend me three songs?
posted by ominous_paws at 10:14 AM on October 24, 2018 [7 favorites]
I'm not a very sentimental person but I find it difficult to listen to Carrie & Lowell without weeping.
posted by exogenous at 10:16 AM on October 24, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by exogenous at 10:16 AM on October 24, 2018 [9 favorites]
Unlike a 15 season tv show, you can just pick up an album and listen to it! Illinoise and Carrie & Lowell are both fantastic works.
posted by kaibutsu at 10:24 AM on October 24, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 10:24 AM on October 24, 2018 [4 favorites]
I'll stay sad until I die that Majesty Snowbird never got a real release.
posted by sonmi at 10:29 AM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by sonmi at 10:29 AM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
I feel validated for always having loved Predatory Wasps, even if I don't think it's the best Sufjan song.
...someone recommend me three songs?
I'd ditto the recommendation to just listen to Carrie and Lowe, which is outstanding and a deeply personal album. It's helpful to understand the backstory (pulled from pitchfork):
Carrie & Lowell is titled after Stevens' mother and stepfather. Carrie was bipolar and schizophrenic and suffered from drug addiction and substance abuse. She died of stomach cancer in 2012, but had abandoned Stevens much earlier, first when he was 1, then later, repeatedly [...] His stepfather, Lowell Brams, was married to Carrie for five years when Sufjan was a child. As a testament to the importance of his role in Stevens' life, Brams currently runs Stevens' label, Asthmatic Kitty, and shows up repeatedly in the record.
posted by Emily's Fist at 10:30 AM on October 24, 2018 [4 favorites]
...someone recommend me three songs?
I'd ditto the recommendation to just listen to Carrie and Lowe, which is outstanding and a deeply personal album. It's helpful to understand the backstory (pulled from pitchfork):
Carrie & Lowell is titled after Stevens' mother and stepfather. Carrie was bipolar and schizophrenic and suffered from drug addiction and substance abuse. She died of stomach cancer in 2012, but had abandoned Stevens much earlier, first when he was 1, then later, repeatedly [...] His stepfather, Lowell Brams, was married to Carrie for five years when Sufjan was a child. As a testament to the importance of his role in Stevens' life, Brams currently runs Stevens' label, Asthmatic Kitty, and shows up repeatedly in the record.
posted by Emily's Fist at 10:30 AM on October 24, 2018 [4 favorites]
→ ...someone recommend me three songs?
I really can't argue with the top three from the article: The author really doesn't like A Sun Came. I had it stuck playing in my car for several months ($reasons) and grew rather fond of it. A Loverless Bed (Without Remission) might be my favourite of all of Sufjan's tracks that are canon. My favourite of all, however, is The Lord God Bird.
posted by scruss at 10:31 AM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
I really can't argue with the top three from the article: The author really doesn't like A Sun Came. I had it stuck playing in my car for several months ($reasons) and grew rather fond of it. A Loverless Bed (Without Remission) might be my favourite of all of Sufjan's tracks that are canon. My favourite of all, however, is The Lord God Bird.
posted by scruss at 10:31 AM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
Christmas Unicorn @54.... seems right.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:54 AM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:54 AM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
I know what I'm doing the rest of the workday. Thanks for the link.
(Impossible Soul is life-changing.)
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 11:08 AM on October 24, 2018
(Impossible Soul is life-changing.)
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 11:08 AM on October 24, 2018
I feel validated for always having loved Predatory Wasps, even if I don't think it's the best Sufjan song.
Predatory Wasp is one of the few musical experiences I've had where I remember clearly where I was when I heard it, and where I burst out crying at its sheer beauty. I'm not a huge "music" person - I love dancing to music, listening to the radio and supporting the musicians in my life, but I'm not someone who just listens to music as my sole activity. Illinois is the exception.
The bliss I got from listening to Illinois on repeat during the mid-2000s has not -- yet -- been outweighed by all of the Sufjan wannabes that I hear at every "singer-songwriter open mic night" that I have attended for the last, oh, 13 years, but man, do they remind me how his music is deceptively simple but actually quite profound and complex.
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 11:16 AM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
Predatory Wasp is one of the few musical experiences I've had where I remember clearly where I was when I heard it, and where I burst out crying at its sheer beauty. I'm not a huge "music" person - I love dancing to music, listening to the radio and supporting the musicians in my life, but I'm not someone who just listens to music as my sole activity. Illinois is the exception.
The bliss I got from listening to Illinois on repeat during the mid-2000s has not -- yet -- been outweighed by all of the Sufjan wannabes that I hear at every "singer-songwriter open mic night" that I have attended for the last, oh, 13 years, but man, do they remind me how his music is deceptively simple but actually quite profound and complex.
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 11:16 AM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
The Christmas songs are way too low on this list, as they are the best Christmas songs. Otherwise, just list all the tracks from Come On Feel the Illinoise! as the top 22 and be done with it.
posted by slogger at 11:25 AM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by slogger at 11:25 AM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
ominous_paws, if it makes you feel better, a significant percentage of these 293 songs are from his Christmas albums, so they're either short or not actually his songs. If you're not a Christmas person, you can skip all of those. Except, of course, for Sufjan's versions of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and "Amazing Grace," which are lovingly and beautifully rendered hymns, and "Christmas Unicorn," which is a wild and delightful ride. Hopefully that makes his oeuvre feel less daunting?
Anyway, my favorite Sufjan album remains Seven Swans, which is still exquisite. I have no quibbles with the position of "To Be Alone with You" at #9, even if it is my personal #1 Sufjan song.
posted by yasaman at 11:33 AM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Anyway, my favorite Sufjan album remains Seven Swans, which is still exquisite. I have no quibbles with the position of "To Be Alone with You" at #9, even if it is my personal #1 Sufjan song.
posted by yasaman at 11:33 AM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Christmas Unicorn @54.... seems right.
Nah, too low. For me it's probably in the top 10. I listen to it probably only once a year, late in December. There'll suddenly come a moment where I'm like "now. Now is the time for the Christmas Unicorn," and I play it and channel all my assorted feelings about what a mess life is into dancing around my apartment like a freak and it's totally cathartic and amazing. "It's alright, I love you."
posted by dnash at 11:52 AM on October 24, 2018
Nah, too low. For me it's probably in the top 10. I listen to it probably only once a year, late in December. There'll suddenly come a moment where I'm like "now. Now is the time for the Christmas Unicorn," and I play it and channel all my assorted feelings about what a mess life is into dancing around my apartment like a freak and it's totally cathartic and amazing. "It's alright, I love you."
posted by dnash at 11:52 AM on October 24, 2018
Fun list!
But I HIGHLY DISAGREE with Tonya Harding at 140. One of my favorites.
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:08 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
But I HIGHLY DISAGREE with Tonya Harding at 140. One of my favorites.
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:08 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Fwiw, Tonya Harding ALSO appears at number 45. The lower ranked one was a re-recording in a different key, because this is a COMPLETE ranking.
posted by kaibutsu at 12:28 PM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 12:28 PM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
It may be weird to stan for "Tahquamenon Falls" (ranked #231), but I'm doing it. Justice for "Tahquamenon Falls"! A good list, though.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 12:39 PM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by chimpsonfilm at 12:39 PM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
The only album by him that I know is The Age of Adz, which I like a lot, and I was curious to see where my favourite tracks (The title track and Get Real, Get Right) ended up (40 & 41). I'll listen to it again tomorrow, I think, and possibly some of the others as there's an awful lot of them and the seem to be very well liked. Thirty-nine of them liked better than my favourites.
posted by Grangousier at 12:46 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Grangousier at 12:46 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
I didn’t think I had strong opinions on Sufjan Stevens, but I felt surprisingly emotional about “Seven Swans” being outside the top twenty. It’s a top ten anyone’s song!
posted by Kattullus at 12:54 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Kattullus at 12:54 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
God I love Chicago so much. I would even if Chicago was not my hometown, but the fact that it is makes the song feel like an especially special gift.
Casimir Pulaski Day captures so many things about my childhood. Small towns, growing up religious, encountering grief for the first time, the jumble of confusion and faith and doubt and innocence and loss and yearning all mixed up in the mind and heart of a young person trying to reconcile the world as it should be with the world as it is... it puts words to things that I felt so deeply but that I would never have been able to express at the time. It's heartbreaking and transcendent.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 1:07 PM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
Casimir Pulaski Day captures so many things about my childhood. Small towns, growing up religious, encountering grief for the first time, the jumble of confusion and faith and doubt and innocence and loss and yearning all mixed up in the mind and heart of a young person trying to reconcile the world as it should be with the world as it is... it puts words to things that I felt so deeply but that I would never have been able to express at the time. It's heartbreaking and transcendent.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 1:07 PM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
I came to Sufjan through Come On Feel The Illinoise, which I love dearly, but I feel like I discovered Predatory Wasp myself while idly relistening to a part of the album I’d neglected. So, yeah!
posted by adrianhon at 1:11 PM on October 24, 2018
posted by adrianhon at 1:11 PM on October 24, 2018
I wonder how much Illinois changed the direction of my life. I listened to that album over and over, fell in love with it the way that only 17-year-olds can fall in love with music. A year after it came out, I went to college in Chicago, 2,000 miles from where I grew up, which I had only visited once for a couple of days. I'm still here. I could have stayed closer to home. Would I have made that leap if this place didn't already feel familiar to me, with all those borrowed feelings?
posted by theodolite at 1:39 PM on October 24, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by theodolite at 1:39 PM on October 24, 2018 [9 favorites]
~asks sheepishly...
So...um...if one has only had a fleeting encounter with Stevens’ music, is this article actually a good summation? Because...damn...I’ve obviously missed a lot of really good music, if it is.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:07 PM on October 24, 2018
So...um...if one has only had a fleeting encounter with Stevens’ music, is this article actually a good summation? Because...damn...I’ve obviously missed a lot of really good music, if it is.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:07 PM on October 24, 2018
I grew up in a small town in the midwest with summers visiting family on Lake Michigan and suburban Detroit. Like theodolite, Illinoise came out when I was in high school, and the following year I moved to Chicago. Listening to certain Sufjan songs makes me achey with nostalgia.
I haven't listened to him much recently (besides a brief time of listening to Carrie and Lowell on repeat when it came out). But he's really more of a fall/winter mood for me, so this evening is going to be dedicated to curling up on the couch with the dog and a cup of tea revisiting his songs.
posted by geegollygosh at 4:13 PM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
I haven't listened to him much recently (besides a brief time of listening to Carrie and Lowell on repeat when it came out). But he's really more of a fall/winter mood for me, so this evening is going to be dedicated to curling up on the couch with the dog and a cup of tea revisiting his songs.
posted by geegollygosh at 4:13 PM on October 24, 2018 [3 favorites]
This would be more effective for me if I could recognize more songs from their titles. But yes, Casimir Pulaski Day, especially the last line, is profoundly moving.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:47 PM on October 24, 2018
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:47 PM on October 24, 2018
I hardly know any Sufjan (I graduated from a Christian liberal arts college just a few years too long ago to have been an obligatory Sufjan fan).
But one of the very few songs of his I have a copy of happens to be #4, Casimir Pulaski day, and that seems right. I can't imagine there are a ton of his songs better than that one.
posted by edheil at 6:46 PM on October 24, 2018
But one of the very few songs of his I have a copy of happens to be #4, Casimir Pulaski day, and that seems right. I can't imagine there are a ton of his songs better than that one.
posted by edheil at 6:46 PM on October 24, 2018
ominous_paws, if it makes you feel better, a significant percentage of these 293 songs are from his Christmas albums, so they're either short or not actually his songs. If you're not a Christmas person, you can skip all of those. Except, of course, for Sufjan's versions of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and "Amazing Grace," which are lovingly and beautifully rendered hymns, and "Christmas Unicorn," which is a wild and delightful ride.
Gotta add "That Was the Worst Christmas Ever" to the list - it might crack my overall top 10, tbh.
In my non-Christmas-song opinions about this list: I think "Holland" is criminally underrated here, but it may be relevant that I spent a loooot of time listening to the whole Michigan album when someone from Traverse City broke my heart senior year of college.
posted by naoko at 8:24 PM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
Gotta add "That Was the Worst Christmas Ever" to the list - it might crack my overall top 10, tbh.
In my non-Christmas-song opinions about this list: I think "Holland" is criminally underrated here, but it may be relevant that I spent a loooot of time listening to the whole Michigan album when someone from Traverse City broke my heart senior year of college.
posted by naoko at 8:24 PM on October 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
In my non-Christmas-song opinions about this list: I think "Holland" is criminally underrated here
That song gives me chills. The best kind of chills. But if I had to pick one song from Michigan, it would be Vito's Ordination Song.
posted by dephlogisticated at 10:46 PM on October 24, 2018
That song gives me chills. The best kind of chills. But if I had to pick one song from Michigan, it would be Vito's Ordination Song.
posted by dephlogisticated at 10:46 PM on October 24, 2018
on my best behavior,
i am really just. like. him.
look under the floorboards,
for the secrets. i. have. hid.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:26 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
i am really just. like. him.
look under the floorboards,
for the secrets. i. have. hid.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:26 PM on October 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
And can I say I'm still a tiny bit bitter that the "50 States Project" was just a promotional gimmick. It was such a brilliant idea, and Sufjan just tossed it aside.
posted by Kattullus at 3:07 AM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Kattullus at 3:07 AM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
It was such a brilliant idea, and Sufjan just tossed it aside.
Hey now. As this list discusses, Carrie & Lowell was originally going to be the next instalment, Oregon, before it turned into its own (magnificent) thing. Which means he spent ten years on the 50 States Project. Ten years is longer than most people spend at university, than the average American marriage lasts, than the average job lasts, than the Beatles were recording together...
I think I would have been more disappointed if he'd smothered Carrie & Lowell in a layer of metaphor and fiction to fit the 50 States theme, and we'd never heard what he actually gave us. Except I wouldn't have been, because I'd never have known what could have been - and, luckily for us, is.
Anyway, who's to say it's gone for good? He might come back to it one day, in a fit of late-middle-aged nostalgia.
posted by rory at 5:05 AM on October 25, 2018
Hey now. As this list discusses, Carrie & Lowell was originally going to be the next instalment, Oregon, before it turned into its own (magnificent) thing. Which means he spent ten years on the 50 States Project. Ten years is longer than most people spend at university, than the average American marriage lasts, than the average job lasts, than the Beatles were recording together...
I think I would have been more disappointed if he'd smothered Carrie & Lowell in a layer of metaphor and fiction to fit the 50 States theme, and we'd never heard what he actually gave us. Except I wouldn't have been, because I'd never have known what could have been - and, luckily for us, is.
Anyway, who's to say it's gone for good? He might come back to it one day, in a fit of late-middle-aged nostalgia.
posted by rory at 5:05 AM on October 25, 2018
sonmi: "I'll stay sad until I die that Majesty Snowbird never got a real release."
This times a thousand.
It's an absolutely gorgeous song. I've seen him perform it live twice -- the second time I saw it, he performed it at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra. It may very well have been the most musically-transcendent experience I've ever experienced.
posted by schmod at 12:23 PM on October 25, 2018
This times a thousand.
It's an absolutely gorgeous song. I've seen him perform it live twice -- the second time I saw it, he performed it at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra. It may very well have been the most musically-transcendent experience I've ever experienced.
posted by schmod at 12:23 PM on October 25, 2018
Also, if you want a fun challenge, go try to figure out the time signature of Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL.
posted by schmod at 12:26 PM on October 25, 2018
posted by schmod at 12:26 PM on October 25, 2018
Put me down for " They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!" is criminally under-ranked.
posted by miguelcervantes at 9:47 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by miguelcervantes at 9:47 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
I've had this list open since you posted it, and last night I finally gave in and started playing some songs. Whoa. Michigan and Illinoise are so heavily tied to a particular time and place for me that I can't even hear them without crying. Which doesn't mean I turned them off, it means I've been crying a lot. At one point in that list, the author mentions The Antlers' "Hospice," which I then immediately needed to listen to again and cry a whole bunch more.
I don't think I've connected to music as much in the last eight-or-so years as I did in the years before that, which is partly a function of having a job and kids, and also that I spend most of my media-consumption time with podcasts now, instead of music. I have to put some thought into that. As much as I love the McElroy brothers or Roman Mars, I can't really see myself turning back to them with warmth and nostalgia and deep personal connection, the way I feel when I listen to music I used to love.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:05 AM on November 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
I don't think I've connected to music as much in the last eight-or-so years as I did in the years before that, which is partly a function of having a job and kids, and also that I spend most of my media-consumption time with podcasts now, instead of music. I have to put some thought into that. As much as I love the McElroy brothers or Roman Mars, I can't really see myself turning back to them with warmth and nostalgia and deep personal connection, the way I feel when I listen to music I used to love.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:05 AM on November 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
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