'Age of Adz’ Another Sprawling, Ambitious Success

In recent years, Sufjan Stevens has become known for taking on large-scale ambitious projects. In 2003, after the release of “Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State”, a collection of 21 folk songs about the singer’s home state, Stevens announced that he planned to make an album for every state. In 2005, he released the 22-song “Come On Feel the Illinoise,” but since then has seemingly given up on this colossal idea. Instead, Stevens began working on an equally massive project about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which culminated in the release of an album and original film entitled “The BQE” in 2009. Though his previous indie-folk albums feature an array of instruments including banjo, horns, flute, and oboe, “The BQE” is entirely orchestral and was performed by a 36-member orchestra.

Although “The Age of Adz,” Sufjan Stevens’s most recent release, is not inspired by any specific setting, it is just as grand as any of his undertakings. This time around, a host of synthesizers and electronic sounds are added to the already dense orchestration. His voice wanders and strains more, distinguishing it from the passive whispering used almost too often in the past. The greater intensity in his voice combined with the complex layering of sounds can be overwhelming at first. However, the sheer magnificence of the album eventually reveals itself as moving and emotive rather than overdone.

The album is most rewarding when the electronic and the orchestral compliment each other. “Get Real Get Right” combines horn swells and woodwind trills with a strong metallic beat and robotic noises. In the breakdown, the wind instruments and beat drop out, leaving Stevens to holler over top a single synthesized riff. When the horns eventually re-enter, even more majestic than before, the songs builds into a riveting, epic fury. “I Want to Be Well” accomplishes a similar feat through the vocal arrangements. As a choir chants, “I want to be well,” the track slowly builds until it eventually erupts with a pulsating beat and Stevens’s vigorous yells: “I’m not fuckin’ around!”

The track that demands the most patience and attention is also arguably the best. The last track “Impossible Soul” is a 25 minute journey that morphs hypnotically through several distinct suites. Despite its colossal length, the track never lets up, with each new melody just as aurally stimulating as the one before it. Thirteen minutes in, after a section of autotuned vocals, mournful piano chords, and what can only be described as the sound of cats screeching, “Impossible Soul” morphs surreptitiously into a danceable, disco-inspired single-along. “Boy we could do much more together,” Stevens and choir sing over blaring horns, swirling strings, and the—by this point expected—backdrop of ambient noises. After twisting the chanted melody into complete chaos, Stevens steps back and reflects. “Boy we made such a mess together”, he sings in hindsight, ending the track, and album, as simply as they began.

The success of Sufjan Stevens’s previous projects comes from his unbelievable ability to capture the essence, whether it be the history, sentiments, or the nostalgia, of a location through music. Yet “Age of Adz” shows that even without a central theme in which to ground his ingenuity, he is still able to create an album that is at once stirring and wildly inventive. This triumph is not the result of the place he chooses to write about, but of the sheer magnitude of his ambition—the scope of which no other musician could begin to device—which has repeatedly culminated in his albums. Although he may never make an album about the great state of Massachusetts, it is safe to say that whatever Sufjan Stevens decides to do next will be no less majestic.

—Staff writer Matt E. Sachs can be reached at msachs@fas.harvard.edu.