Sufjan Stevens

This Land of Lincoln salute presents a refreshingly original indie history lesson backed by an orchestra of trumpets, flutes, choir and banjos. Even the saddest songs ("Casimir Pulaski Day") sound euphoric in their soulful honesty. Plus, anyone who rhymes "Decatur" and "emancipator" in a song about Abe's hometown deserves a key to the city, if not the state.

Lots of songwriters have tried to define their vision of America, but Sufjan Stevens believes
in taking a methodical approach. A couple of years ago, he set out on a fifty-record
project to make a concept album about each state, starting with Greetings From Michigan:
The Great Lakes State. It's a ludicrously ambitious project, one that you wish Randy
Newman or Al Green would have tried in decades past. But that's probably the o... More >

Scornful though one may be of Stevens's beliefs that "classical music" is "high art" and Christ Jesus died for our sins, it would be rigid in the extreme to deny his melodicism. There's not an unattractive tune on a record rife with counterpoint and interlude; musically, it's so inspired--and because it does its appointed work simply and unhurriedly, so unpretentious--that nonbelievers had better accept that he's getting over on talent, not talk. Religion arises mainly in the immensely touching, and unorchestrated, "Casimir Pulaski Day," where the cancer death of a teen love occasions something resembling doubt. The historically inclined may object that Steven's portrait of the great state of Abraham Lincoln and Ozzie Guillen is impressionistic to the point of whimsy, and I myself would die a smidgen happier if I never heard another song about a mass murderer. But this album radiates positive energy, and in today's alt, that's a precious thing. (Grade - A-)