Sufjan Stevens
Carrie & Lowell
Stream to March 30
This is the finger tracing across a dusty photo album, the candlelight flickering against the dark, the hunter drawing arrows from a quiver. What you are about to hear above is a quiet reckoning.
With Carrie & Lowell (you can pre-order the album here), Michigan-raised, Brooklyn-based Sufjan Stevens reflects on his absent mother — the titular Carrie, who died in 2012 — and his stepfather, Lowell Brams. The details of why and how his mother became absent can be found with a simple search, but the album doesn't necessarily require them. This is a journey: the path from confusion to acceptance.
And it's one Stevens doesn't walk alone. There is Daniel the prophet, and Jesus, and the God of Elijah. Stevens liberally references Greek mythology throughout: Poseidon, Perseus, Icarus, Dido and Erebus appear along the way like guests in some Homeric epic. And like the Greek poet, Sufjan guides us through a series of battles, a war now past, but one which should not be forgotten. There are unclear lines, regret and hope, fatal blows and tragedy. This is the songwriter as calm, devastating chronicler. Like Leonard Cohen, like the greatest hymns, this is poetry.
Sometimes, the lines lament: "When I was three, three maybe four/ She left us at that video store." Other times they dig in: "Spirit of my silence I can hear you/ But I’m afraid to be near you." And sometimes they are delivered with heart-smashing simplicity: "Friend, why don't you love me?" Still, as easily as it could descend into a complete absence of light, the songs are carried through with a quiet grace, a tone of forgiveness.
(Illustration by Ahmed Khalil/CBC Music)
An intimate listen, the instrumentation on Carrie & Lowell is sparse (some of the songs were recorded with an iPhone). There are swells, and disarmingly abrupt endings. Shelved is the glitchy experimentation and chaotic orchestration of his last album, 2010'sThe Age of Adz. And while this is clearly a journey into the past, Stevens also logged long physical distances in putting it together, with recording locations stretching across the U.S.: from his office in Brooklyn, to Oklahoma to Eau Claire, Wis., and across Oregon (a place he spent a few summers with Carrie and Lowell as a child). Some of the stops saw Stevens meet up with some guest players, including Sean Carey (Bon Iver) and Laura Veirs.
Carrie & Lowell is a meditation on a life. Mythic biography. An Ovidian elegy. It is a quiet record, meant to be heard.
Tracklisting:
1. "Death With Dignity"
2. "Should Have Known Better"
3. "All of Me Wants All of You"
4. "Drawn to the Blood"
5. "Eugene"
6. "Fourth of July"
7. "The Only Thing"
8. "Carrie & Lowell"
9. "John My Beloved"
10. "No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross"
11. "Blue Bucket of Gold"