Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz

musicismylife78

This other music part of the board is pretty unhip frankly. not one discussion on Sufjan Stevens recent out of nowhere hour long EP, and his recent first full length in 5 years, Age of Adz leaked yesterday.

the album features autotuned vocals, hip hop and electronic laptop beats, choirs, and a song where sufjan swears.

strummers

musicismylife78 wrote:

sufjan swears.

Saw him performing it live last night - absolutely breathtaking!! He is a stunningly talented guy. He made me want to boogie!

Also got his sunglasses - they fell off his head when he was dancing in front of me

Seeing him again on Thursday - can't wait!

musicismylife78

im jealous. seeing him dance would be worth admission alone.

ive never understood this boards hatred or indifference of sufjan. the guys one of the best songwriters of our generation, easily.

and its pretty pathetic, this is the only sufjan thread from last year until now. and for an album that appeared on multiple best of 2010 albums lists as well...

strummers

He is so amazingly talented, it's a little scary!

Seeing The Age of Adz come alive in front of you was absolutely stunning I came out of that gig so happy. It's been 5 years since we last saw him over here. I'm just so glad he's come back to performing. For a while there I was a little scared he'd disappear from making and performing music.

His dancing was great, he's got such an innocent child-like quality when he's performing. There's a video up here ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI37oVpg ... ture=share - not mine and the sound's pretty poor), it doesn't do the experience a fragment of justice. At the end there were hundreds of balloons released into the crowd - man I can't wait until Thursday!

When I was putting the song Chicago from the setlist into Setlist.fm it came up that Eddie had covered it at one of his solo shows back in 2008 - do you know anything about that?

musicismylife78

great video. i dont know anything about ed covering chicago. i love that song though. I think i might prefer the acoustic one off the avalanche. but yeah, one of the cooler things about sufjan is he spent several years in my hometown of eugene. that was the sad thing about him not doing the other 48 states, was that it seemed likely he would release an oregon album which would have been awesome.

sufjan is just so cool. ive long stated here, i dont claim any religion, but the way he describes God and religion, it makes me want to join a church or something.

he's just so supremely talented. I mean, Illinois alone, youve got John Wanye Gacy, Chicago, Concerning the UFO, Casimir Pulaski, Decatur, Predatory Wasp. Thats just one album!

I wish it was christmastime so i could dust off the 5 disc sufjan christmas albums!

musicismylife78

oh and Romulus. Jesus! What a hell of a song. Each line is more heartbreaking as it goes on.... beautiful.

musicismylife78

i feel like he is what all great art should be...comforting. He's like a double threat. or quintuple threat, haha. all the damn instruments he plays. Didnt he play like all 25 instruments on Illinoise? So he's got the bueatiful lyrics and songwriting. He's a masterful musician, and can play literally any style and any instrument. I like how he challenges us and himself. from songwriter to all the instrumental music he's done the last few years. and then of course THAT VOICE. That damn voice. So comforting, calming and beautiful. Its like the world could be caving in, and that voice, is all the reassurance i need, it will all be okay.

strummers

Another cracking gig in Manchester - had a bit of a different vibe as the set up was quite far back on the stage, whereas in Newcastle they were all literally inches away.

Noticed a kid in a 10c hoodie outside the Manchester gig!

Anyway, here are some photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/strummers2505/

aspoonfulweighsaton

I consider myself a pretty big fan of his but I did not like The Age of Adz at all. As soon as I heard the auto-tune I was done. I mean I listened to it non-stop while on a road trip to Williamsburg hoping it would sink in but it finally hit me that just because you're "supposed" to like something doesn't make it good. My ears seem to do a better job of letting me know what I like instead of all the cool kids that rave about his over-indulgence.