Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz

Asthmatic Kitty
2010

When I put this shit on for the first time, I heard the opening track "Futile Devices" and instantly fell in love with this record....

well, not really. I fell in love with the first track. It's classic Sufjan Stevens, and for some reason the lyrics fucking fit. It has been a long long time.

I got really excited when that All Delighted People EP came out. It was pretty much the classic Sufjan style amped up a bit and dragged out into 12 minute long songs, but you don't really mind since it's awesome.

Anyways, the simple summary of this album is that it reminded me of that Enjoy Your Rabbit album everyone kind of passed off because it was too weird and The Avalanche. Yeah. The Avalanche. The songwriting skills on this album pale in comparison to Illinois with it's heartfelt ballads about serial killers, superman, and pretty much everything about the state of Illinois. Michigan was just as fucking good. I don't know, this album doesn't sound as inspired as the earlier ones Sufjan Stevens wrote. It's like he's trying to figure out what he's wanting to sound like, which is cool and every thing. I dig the electronica. The songwriting though, it sounds about as good as the stuff he put on a record of B-Sides. It's good, but it's not mindblowing enough to make you fall in love with it.

So are there any songs worth listening to on here? Yeah. "Futile Devices" is fucking awesome. "I Walked" is a great combination of Sufjan's great songwriting and his new electronic sound. "Vesuuvius" is also a great song. "Too Much" could be something good, but the lyrics are kinda cheesy. Honestly, there's a lot of forgettable stuff on this album. "Impossible Soul" is 20 minutes plus of Sufjan autotune, and some other stuff going on. It's not that the songs are bad, but they drag on for fucking ever and you get fucking bored listening to them. I guess someone said Sufjan Stevens was kind into minimalist electronica, and it shows on this album. It works sometimes, but other times, you get bored and want to put on Illinois.

So all in all, this isn't a bad record, but it's not what I expected it to be. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't so much of a disappointment that I won't listen to his music anymore (like his live show), but I wasn't really blown away. Like I've been saying, it's been long enough we can forget about all of the hype of 2005. I like to think that this record is just a preview of better things to come, as Sufjan continues to work on new shit maybe something mindblowing will come out in the future.

3.5 out of 5 Steering Wheels