Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

[meatdrink9]

Enjoy kiddies:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JAAG1YUY

Was planning to take our daughter with us to his upcoming SLC show, but this is much heavier (but completely awesome) than his previous albums. Illinoise to Adz in not unlike the jump from OK Computer to Kid A. Find some headphones and dig in.

[meatdrink9]

I think this may be my favorite album of the year to date. Challenging and then all consuming. 5-6 listens today, probably another 5-6 tomorrow.

[The AD]

I'll have to check this out. I really enjoyed his Illinoise album, but that was a few years back.

[dookeyXXX]

I personally never cottoned to SS's two previous albums (a bit too "precious" and twee sounding for my taste).

That said, I peeped a portion of this new album out last night after stumbling on this thread (it's streaming on NPR right now) and I have to say I like his new sonic approach.

I only got a few songs in, so I'll have to finish up listening to the whole shebang in order to formulate an overall impression, but the opening track, "Futile Devices", is really hypnotic and the title track, "The Age of Adz", is pretty damn amazing. The layering of vocals and neo-symphonic flourishes are definitely ripe for late night headphone action.

[meatdrink9]

He started out with a lot of electronic stuff (pre Michigan, Seven Swans, and Illinoise). Then he did the BQE score which sort of brought about a musical existential crisis (no albums for 5 years, lost faith in the concept of songs). He abandoned his 50 states project and gives us this. Very much on the same page as the BQE work, but with vocals. I loved his previous albums. I was worried he couldn't keep up with Illinoise after his 5 year hiatus. This is not what I expected or wanted, but it's better than what I expected and wanted. When I bought presale tickets to his show I had a huge list of old songs I wanted to hear... now all I want to hear is this live (and I LOVE his older work).