Sufjan does not keep his faith separate to his art. His Christian beliefs inform his lyrics on occasion, and his current attitude towards religion and spirituality is prominent on The Ascension. It's just another sign of the record's directness. I think that's part of the process. I think doubt is inherent in the practice of belief and that you kind of have to live with both.
I love to go to church and sing songs and all that stuff every once in a while. Especially now more than ever, because all of those systems are failing us. I feel I can't be certain of anything. I think that that's part of the natural journey of being a believer in anything.
That's kind of how I've been moving about my world and going in and out of my faith. Stevens intimates that, in not following his faith blindly, he's able to take a clearer view of what it all means. It's sometimes a little bit sacrilegious. Some people will probably read that as like I've lost my spiritual path. But that's not true at all. That has enabled me to then make these remarks and think about these things, and have the bandwidth and the wherewithal to really question them.
I think that's just part of the nature of belief. One of the most intense moments on the record comes midway through, via 'Ativan'.
Industrial electronic beats and lo-fi electro synth bloops and pulses help create an extreme atmosphere that's part gloomy art-pop, part late-night club burner. So, in that song, there's this sort of despairing, dreading undertone, and there's kind of like a four-on-the-floor kind of thing, which is really unusual for me. Like a pulsing heartbeat.
We're in like Detroit in the 80s or something. Hilarious on a surface level, perhaps. But peel back a layer and you'll find it's part of the broader emotional journey that The Ascension offers.
It's what you take when you're having a panic attack. So, I guess I wanted the song to feel like a panic attack. Sufjan Stevens has written plenty of great lyrics in his time. It's unlikely ' Come on, baby, gimme some sugar ' from 'Sugar', a strangely amorous song that appears late in The Ascension , will go down as one of the best.
Try chorale! And then marimba again! The big picture is no better. If we include a compilation of Illinois outtakes apparently twenty-one tracks was not enough! No album needs Saginaw, Saginaw. After dark, after dark. Sometimes Stevens half-acknowledges his musical bloat, with nod and wink, like a model with a beauty mark.
I want to write a song that is casting judgment against the world. But I needed to exorcise all of those folk idioms I also think this record, because it is political and bossy and bitchy, needed to be somewhat fun, sonically. What Stevens is trying to do is distinguish between joyful self-expression and validation-seeking vanity. Severed the limb that causes you to stumble … and tried something new?
Like, what if we rewrote the Constitution? His devoted fans celebrated this appearance as a moment of long-overdue mainstream recognition for the spotlight-shy thenyear-old; 26 million viewers were watching at home, after all. But for the artist himself, shrinking into his pink-and-black striped blazer as Hollywood A-listers schmoozed around him, there was not much to celebrate. Stevens has spent his career adjusting his work to help avoid such rooms.
The Detroit-born composer is an indie household name, with St Vincent, Moses Sumney both of whom joined him onstage at the Oscars and the National among his peers. But every time Stevens has edged too close to the precipice of mainstream success, he has reacted by releasing something challenging or fogged in darkness.
It was believable at the time because his songs frequently resembled celebrations of Americana, constantly invoking its landmarks and former leaders.
It was called What Happened. What happened?
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