Stevens’s goes bigger on his latest LP, with less interesting results.
It is undoubtedly a statement to release a one–hour–and–fifteen–minute–long record — it implies a burning need to be heard, or at the very least an abundance of musical ideas. Sufjan Stevens’s 2005 masterpiece Illinois reflects that notion perfectly. It is overflowing with lush concepts, possessed by a sort of “universal specificity” that consistently lifts Stevens’s lyrical genius to the level of his varied instrumentation.
Yet Stevens has always been more of a storyteller than a confessionary, though, on many of his old records it isn’t always clear when the fiction ends and the memoir begins. On The Age of Adz, the singer–songwriter’s latest, this separation becomes abundantly obvious — any sense of story arc is extinguished with (relatively) understated opener “Futile Devices,” which plays like a haunting love poem, but lacks the arrangement to pull it off the page.
This particular criticism can be applied to much of Adz, which often rests on epic, emotional generalities and skittery electronics that rarely work as well as they should. Stevens would do well to mix everything up; the big moments are big, but they happen too frequently, and the life–affirming boldness loses its catharsis after such a long, draining progression. The 25–minute closer “Impossible Soul” is just that: impossible. Once you wade through the excessive auto–tune and wholly earnest dance music breaks, the conclusion that “it’s a long life” seems slightly more petulant than profound.
If these criticisms seem especially harsh, remember that Sufjan is Sufjan, and we expect a lot from him. The fact is, Adz isn’t his best album, and it may be his worst in a long time. But it certainly isn’t terrible, and it has its moments. Album stand-out “Too Much” plays with the hooky electronic persistence that powers Animal Collective’s “My Girls,” and the pulsing orchestral pieces can often provide an interesting ambience. Where Adz falls short, then, is Sufjan’s bloated concepts, which are often too familiar to the listener and too large for the record itself.
Age of Adz Sounds Like: The diary of a (pretty profound) teenage girl 99-Cent Download: “Too Much” Good For: People with a lot of patience 2.5/5 Stars
