I remember the excitement of when I first discovered Sufjan Stevens' music. I'd bought the soundtrack to the film I'm Not There which featured endless covers of Bob Dylan songs by a variety of artists, some I knew, some I didn't. Sufjan's cover of Ring Them Bells caught my ear and thought he was worth checking out. I read his Wikipedia page and realised he was this hugely admired, prolific song-writer who I'd somehow never heard of. I found a copy of Illinois on cd in a second shop (with Superman on the sleeve) a short while later and became a fan. I picked up a few other albums over the years, some better than others, and eagerly awaited new music. He'd been away for a while but came back with a new hour long EP and album both within about a month of each other. The music world was excited but unprepared to be so divided.
Both records were put onto Bandcamp to stream and I listened to them both (which was the first time of many I'd visit Bandcamp). I thought All Delighted People was fantastic. The never-ending title track was amazing, both versions putting a different spin on it. From the Moth of Gabriel and The Owl and the Tanager both sound like a classic Sufjan songs, which almost everyone will agree is a good thing. The closer Djohariah is nothing to write home about, but the handclaps are nice. The album however I couldn't get on board with at all. The Age of Adz was a crazed, experimental, auto-tuned record that Pitchfork lapped up (interestingly they hated All Delighted People). There was one song that I thought was quite good, but that was countered by another that I could barely listen to. The rest I was entirely on the fence about. I'm not against artists experimenting and "pushing boundaries"; I think it's important and music would be terribly dull if no one did. However, I got the impression that it got rave reviews because it was different and not necessarily because it was any good. In turn, All Delighted People got forgotten about and ignored because he'd written songs more like those that came before. I have a bad habit of taking bad reviews personally when it's an album I like. I know I shouldn't. It's very easy to interpret bad reviews of records as the reviewer saying "you must be an idiot if you like this" when they're not (usually) saying that at all.
Anyway, I think this is a cracking EP, and anyone who enjoyed Illinois or Michigan or Seven Swans would enjoy it equally as much. I listened to it a bunch online and picked the double vinyl up in Banquet just after I moved to Kingston. The EP is spread over three sides, with the fourth containing 11 instrumental piano tracks, neither found on the cd or the download card. I was very pleasantly surprised, expecting just a one-sided record. It's nice when artists/labels reward those buying the vinyl with added bonuses.
Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 19
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 14/07/11
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: download
