In Which Sufjan Stevens Makes Me Feel A Bit Unnecessary

I wrote a review of Sufjan Stevens' new album, The Age of Adz which drops today, over on Pretty Much Amazing. It's a pretty analytical review of what I think is one of the strongest albums of this year - a year that has been pretty great for good music. Check it out if you want to do some reading, but know that what I really want to write about the album is this:

AHHHHHHH, "I Want To Be Well" is like the best song evarr and I cannot stop listening to it and Sufjan Stevens is like so heady man, like so heady that I can't even get it, and I am unbelievably pumped to be seeing him in concert in a month, and this album is crazy and weird and hard to comprehend, but it's also kind of earth shatteringly good at moments, and "I Want To Be Well" is basically six and a half minutes of those earth shatteringly good moments stacked back to back to back to back, and when he starts singing "I Want To Be Well" I can't help thinking about Ben's post about Lester Bangs writing about how Van Morrison inflected words, and then a couple seconds later I can't help thinking about Thom Yorke and Radiohead when Sufjan sings "I'm not fucking around" backed by chaotic instrumentals and a chorus, and the whole thing is just bloody brilliant and makes me feel a bit inconsequential.

So you should listen to it. On headphones. Loud.

Thanks.

Sufjan Stevens - I Want To Be Well (YSI) (filesavr)