Asthmatic Kitty
2010
I was driving around in bus 748 yesterday over on Crestline road and had the radio locked on KJHK. It was around 2 PM, and this song came on. I was like "wow this sounds a lot like fucking Sufjan Stevens- is this some old shit he wrote or a side project?" I really liked the song and thought it sounded too much like the songs we all came to love on Come on Feel the Illinoise and Michigan to be a side project or some shit like that.
So I get home from the bar last night/this morning (thanks for the ride, Amy Stack), and my friend Ian is telling me about this new Sufjan Stevens song he heard on KJHK. I was like "OMG I HEARD IT TOO IT WAS SO AWESOME!" and then my friend Joy got home and said pretty much the same thing. I instantly found this record, downloaded it and listened to it all the way through.
I was too wasted last night to really for an opinion about it, but today I'm more sober (for the time being). The title track is REALLY REALLY LONG. Like 11 minutes long. Sufjan Stevens is such a good songwriter that you still want to keep listening to it. The song really rises and falls and changes in a way that keeps you listening. Oh yeah, there's two versions of the song as well. You all remember that "collection of B sides and alternate versions" we had to settle for in like 2005? I don't know, I'm tired of hearing alternate versions of the same shit, but I guess that it works here because the two songs sound different enough. "Enchanting Ghost" is classic fucking Sufjan Stevens and a motherfucking guitar. I think it's like "Predatory Wasp of the Pallisades Part II" or a continuation of that song about John Wayne Gacy.
Sufjan Stevens was fucking burnt out after making Illinois and that's probably why we are just now getting new shit, almost 6 years later. I mean, I would be really burnt out too if I wrote over 300 songs for an album and still had enough good stuff I threw out to make another album. Nobody can really do that, except for that one guy from the Mountain Goats. So I don't know, hearing this EP got me excited about Sufjan Stevens again. It's kind of like seeing an old friend you haven't seen in a long ass time, even though you stopped hanging out because they pissed you off. After seeing Sufjan Stevens live, I was so disappointed with his show I didn't want to listen to him. Thanksgiving came and went and I really didn't want to listen to anything off of Michigan or even Seven Swans like I normally do because I was so let down. Sure they were fucking tired, but I had high hopes for a religious live experience and when it didn't happen I was pissed. I guess I've had enough time to forgive Sufjan Stevens and we've all had some time to forget about the hype from the state albums. This album is a pleasant surprise released just in time.
The best part is yet to come- I guess there's a full length LP coming out in a few months? AWESOME!
5/5 Steering Wheels.
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