193 words about Sufjan Stevens' Convocations
Admit it: Nothing was ever as good after Sufjan Stevens Invite[d] You To: Come On Feel the ILLINOISE on July 4, 2005. A 73-minute dive into the history of the Prairie State replete with a cheerleading squad, flutes, banjos, Jesus, and song titles like "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!," Illinois was notable for building a confidently maximalist structure using materials borrowed as much from Steve Reichian minimalism as from American folk music. Since that peak, Stevens has wavered somewhat less successfully between the poles of maximalism — think Age of Adz, The Ascension, and 400 Christmas albums — and a strain of minimalist folk highlighted on the acclaimed Carrie & Lowell. Stevens finally reunites these two opposing tendencies on Convocations, a 49-song collection of brief ambient pieces that marks his most powerful work since Illinois. This is surprising, not only because it is completely instrumental but because it deviates from Stevens’ typical topicalism: There are no concepts here, no states or family tragedies to animate, and no cheerleaders; just echoes of Richard D. James, shades of Tim Hecker and Emeralds, and ghosts entirely Stevens’ own.