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Sufjan Stevens
Danny_Horney
Posts: 18
Anyone else into this guy?
Being from Michigan, I have loved his stuff for a long while now.
For anyone who hasn't heard him, check out these albums:
1. Greetings from Michigan
2. Seven Swans
3. Illinois
All different and great stuff. All might not like him but I love him and have for a while now.
Being from Michigan, I have loved his stuff for a long while now.
For anyone who hasn't heard him, check out these albums:
1. Greetings from Michigan
2. Seven Swans
3. Illinois
All different and great stuff. All might not like him but I love him and have for a while now.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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He's good, but he loves the sound of his own voice and music way too much. He released 40 or 50 something songs about the state of Illinois, he had a pretty spectacular 13-18 song album hidden in there with a bunch of junk filling out the space. Some of the songs on Illinois are pretty amazing, I like him a lot when he is playing a full song, but there is way too much filler in his stuff.
yeah, he's one of those egomaniacal artists who feels everything he writes is gold. he's hoping to write an album about every state? that's the dumbest idea i ever heard. then he sidetrips to write a sprawling 4 disc christmas album? he's just a little nuts.
granted, he has some fine moments. if he could learn to self-filter and quit spewing disc after disc of bloated filler, he could be great.
egomoniacal?
I highly doubt that.
So is PJ egomoniacal? They have released over 200 cds to date.
Sufjan is just an artist who makes alot of music and shares it with the few people that actually care.
Also, the 50 states thing is more of a wish that a mission. Coming from a guy who constantly tours this country more for scenery that music playing.
I love his music and am glad to see others do to.
I have to agree with him being full of himself. I like alot of the guys work, hes a decent songwriter and all but I don't like the way he comes off or his concept albums. Just check out this interview, he comes off as a dick. http://www.adequacy.net/interview.php?InterviewID=71. He bashes Jim O'Rourke, Wilco and The Silver Jews.
bad analogy. 185 live albums that have no original material is completely different from new releases.
look at lost dogs... pearl jam self edits and is very selective about which songs they actually release (sometimes their choices are bad, but that's another debate). not so with sufjan, who releases every tune he comes up with when not all of it is that great. im not saying he sucks, im just saying he should be a bit more particular about what he releases. he would have some fantastic albums if he didnt feel compelled to dilute the great tracks with crappy self-aggrandizing half songs.
bright eyes is the same way. conor oberst has some genius moments, but there's no way he needs to be releasing an album a year with 2 b-sides discs in between.
it's quality, not quantity. and there is power in understatement.
Exactly, I totally agree. There are some good tracks hidden in there somewhere. But there is excessive overproduction on most of them, and a lot of junk filler as you said.
Prime example: The song "Chicago" in its stripped down acoustic form is quite amazing (its on the Avalanche b-sides album)...the same song on Illinoize is overblown, overproduced, and annoying as fuck. There are a lot of annoying as fuck moments on his albums, and the good moments are few and far between. I don't want to hear an album full of flute/butterfly/angelic choir noises covering up some pretty good songs.
Makes me wanna punch him.
Im glad I started this thread!
The same people that bash every other band ever created bashes him for releasing music to a very small fanbase and having a few selective words for other musicians and their particular direction.
HAHAHA...I love it. keep it coming.
EDIT: Also, it is actually a pretty good analogy. I love PJ but 7 (or so) SS albums compared to their 200 and HE is egomaniacal? Lets not even count PJ's live stuff and they still outnumber him. I understand your "quality over quantity" but even then PJ hasnt exactly released solid gold lately. Those unmentionable albums between No Code and Pearl Jam were pretty horrible across the board. Awful sans about 5 total songs. I, for one and along with many others love 90% of SS's stuff. So, I guess its just opinion. I just think your "Quality or quantity" argument is moot and pretty laughable. No offense what-so-ever.
BTW, I dont think either are egomaniacal but its just kinda uneven. Also, I wouldnt defend anyone I didnt know but I have first hand knowlege of SS being a pretty darn good guy. Egomaniacal or anything even close to anything but genuinely cool would be 100% incorrect. Again, opinions differ and thats cool.
But, I love opinions and especially some hypocritical opinions so keep them coming!
Did you read the article? Dude, he's a dick. He gloats about himself and how great he is because he can write a song in 5/4 time, like thats a fucking accomplishment. He thinks hes so cool because he makes mixtapes of Nels Cline or Tom Verlaine solo work and passes them on to friends because it validates him and gives him credibility. And his opinions on Jim O'Rourke, Wilco and The Silver Jews are baseless and laughable. "Oh I hate The Silver Jews because regardless of their awesome songwriting I'll discredit them because they're racist"
Discredits Wilco because they're Alt-Country? Wilco isn't even Alt-Country! Maybe Tweedy's old band Uncle Tupelo, but Wilco was never an Alt-Country band, despite what him and the critics want to pin it as. And even if a band fell underneath that label, so what? As long as the music is good, call it whatever you want.
And his opinion on Jim O'Rourke. First, Jim O'Rourke is a staple for the whole Chicago music scene. His work with Gastr Del Sol, Sea and Cake, Tortoise...he's influenced that whole scene more than Sufjan wishes he did. Bashes him but praises Stereolab, despite the fact Jim O'Rourke produced one of their best albums. Sufjan is a snob who thinks his shit doesn't stink and pops out a few decent songs here and there.
Live albums aren't the same as studio albums! It isn't even close, Pearl Jam did the fans a favor by offering a good quality recording of every one of their shows available at a good price. They don't feel the need to release every song they ever attempt in the studio. The fact that the boots aren't professionally printed in CD cases with detailed liner notes is alone enough to show that they don't expect or desire all of their fans to buy all 200+ bootlegs. Sufjan took his Illinois leftovers and put them in a nice package as if it were a completely new album like Illinois was, but in reality it was a bunch of leftovers. There are no parallels between the two situations. If Sufjan had complied a career's worth of b-sides and non-album songs, it would have been similar to Lost Dogs, but a 20+ track album of outtakes from a single album? Not anything remotely similar to the PJ bootlegs or Lost Dogs.
I'm not agreeing that Sufjan is an egomaniac for releasing long albums, I simply which he would cut down on the crap filler he puts in all of his albums. If he showed any form of restraint at all when picking the tracklist for Illinois he may have had one of the best albums of the decade, but he puts too many songs on his albums.
I don't care if he is the nicest guy in the world or a complete a-hole, it really doesn't matter to me. I simply wish he would cut down his tracklists a bit because he makes some REALLY good music at times, but it is a pain to listen through his full albums to find it.
hypocritical? im sure sufjan is a nice guy, he just needs to admit he's not perfect. not every song he ever wrote is worth hearing. not every pearl jam song ever written is worth hearing. in fact, ive never heard of a single band that has a perfect catalogue. the difference is, the average pearl jam album is 45 minutes and they waited until 7 albums into their 15 year career to release an album that was only the best of their b-sides. the average sufjan album is 75, plus he promptly releases another album of out-takes, and has 7 albums in 4 years... they're not ALL good songs. do you honestly believe every song he's ever written and released is brilliant?
2003 ~ Toronto
2005 ~ London, Toronto
2006 ~ Toronto
2008 ~ Hartford, Mansfied I,
2009 ~ Toronto, Chicago I, Chicago II
2010 ~ Cleveland, Buffalo
2011 ~ Toronto I, Toronto II, Ottawa, Hamilton
2013 - London, Pittsburgh, Buffalo
But that's my opinion.