I distinctly remember the day I first heard Come On! Feel The Illinoise! by Mr. Sufjan Stevens. I’d seen him in SPIN a few days previous, a scrawny Clive Owen look-alike wearing an orange headband and playing the banjo. I was working at Borders that year and an older co-worker handed me the promo copy of Illinoise. “You’ll dig this,” the sage-like bookseller intoned, and he was mostly right-- though honestly, I didn’t know what to make of it at first. This thing sounded like a middle school marching band attempting A Charlie Brown Christmas with a nearby shepherd boy gently lilting the lyrics to “We Didn’t Start The Fire”. It was a baffling listening experience, to say the least, but like many other doe-eyed hipsters, I soon fell in love with this banjo-plucking geographer/historian. A few years and countless silly costumes later, Mr. Stevens has once again appeared to test our tolerance for woodland critter odes and nu-Romanticism.
This latest release is an online EP centered around “All Delightful People”, a self-described “long-form epic ballad” that appears in its original and (deceptively titled) “classic rock” incarnation. The song contains all the Sufjan stapes (horns, strings, choirs, oh my!) that fans have come to expect while still sounding fresh and earnest. The lyrics play with Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” without turning coy or cheesy. Few artists can pull off the striking lyrical juxtaposition between precious and preposterous that Sufjan employs willy nilly, and we’re thankfully spared any and all references to serial killers and presidential debates. The extra version is an unnecessary indulgence (More banjo! Less orchestra!), but the original manages to sound operatic without betraying the intimacy of Sufjan’s best work.
The extra songs, however, are a mixed bag. The gothic piano of “The Owl and The Tanager” will send chills up your earbuds and “From the Mouth of Gabriel” has some retro synth bleeps and boops that will perk some folk-centric ears. But often—especially on tracks “Enchanting Ghost”, “Heirloom”, and “Arnika”—it feels like a sonic retread of Michigan and Seven Swans tracks, without the state trivia. “Djohariah” has a beautiful vocal section (think Elton John’s self-titled record), but he’s buried it behind minutes upon minutes of aimless guitar soloing and Pink Floyd choir humming.
All Delighted People won’t delight all people, but Sufjan disciples and Asthmatic Kitties everywhere will find plenty to swoon over. Pretentious art folk isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (or non-fat latte), but Sufjan Stevens has yet to fail at delivering that very particular brand of chaste, child-like forest pop that can—and hopefully, will—only come from him.
The All Delightful People EP is available now on the Sufjan Stevens Bandcamp page.
