A Short Reprise For Mary Todd, Who Went Insane But For Very Good Reasons
So I bought my first actual album on iTunes yesterday. I have bought single songs before (usually only when I couldn't find them on WinMX, which I know makes me a Bad Music Listener) but never an entire album. I just kept clicking on the samples and wanting all the songs on the album, though, so since there were 24 of them I figured it was easier to pay $10 than $20+.
The album is entitled "Sufjan Stevens Invites You To Come On Feel The Illinoise!" It is referred to in short form as "Illinois," but I think that this abbreviation really cuts out what is special about the title. So I'm breaking with tradition by abbreviating it "SSIYTCOFTI!" The exclamation point is very important.
The reason the album is called Illinois (or SSIYTCOFTI!) is that all of the songs are about Illinois, or people from there. Sufjan's-- because we're on a first name basis, natch-- we're both Episcopalians-- anyway, Sufjan's stated purpose is to create an album for every state in the nation. The one he did before this one was about Michigan, entitled "Sufjan Stevens Presents: Welcome To Michgan! The Great Lakes State" and called his backup band "The Michigan Militia." So you can see the level of brilliance we're working with here.
So anyway. The title of this entry is my favorite song title, but it's not even the longest one. The longest song title is "The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Gonna Have To Leave Now, Or, 'I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight..." The ellipses at the end of the title as it's listed on amazon.com suggest there may even be more to the song title than that!
(Please do understand that I'm getting my superficial delight with the album out of the way first, before I delve deeper. I do like it for more than its quirky song titles. However, the song titles, the "an album for each state" thing, and all that surface quirkiness is what originally attracted me to him, so I guess I'm hoping to reel you guys in with it like I was, before I drop the real science that blew my mind on about my 5th listening.)
Another superficial attraction for me was the SOUND. It's BIG. But somehow, it manages not to sound bombastic-- there's a certain humility to it, even with all its ambition. There's a string quartet backing him on many songs, along with a chorus of earnest-sounding singers, and he uses banjo and accordian for accent. Mike McGonigal reviews SSIYTCOFTI! on Amazon, describing it thusly: "Illinois sounds like The Sea and Cake collaborating with the high-school band from a Wes Anderson film on banjo-driven, pulsing meditations on Vince Guaraldi's music for Peanuts." And oddly enough, the description totally works. The first song I heard was one my brother sent to me, entitled "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!, Pt. I: The World's Columbian Exposition / Pt. II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In a Dream." It has xylophone accents, sweet little wind and horn bursts, thick instrumentation backing his modest vocals. About halfway through the song (the Pt II about Carl Sandburg, I can only assume) the sound changes and the winds and horns move into a Cure-inspired riff, a lot like "Close To Me." And yet, it all totally works seamlessly.
I mentioned earlier that Sufjan is an Episcopalian (also one of my initial attractions-- a Christian musician who doesn't Jesus up his music? Music informed by the three-legged stool of scripture, reason, and tradition? I'm totally there!). This becomes evident in the song "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," which manages to skirt the line between sympathy and contempt for a reviled figure, and encapsulate the spirit of the "People of Faith Against the Death Penalty" movement. I didn't listen to this song right away, because I was too busy listening to the three songs I was first addicted to, but based on my initial superficial listening I thought would be a lighthearted little ditty with cultural references, perhaps a clown motif. I was very wrong. It is heart-rending.
From the first verse:
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things
Rotting fast in their sleep of the dead
Twenty-seven people, even more
They were boys with their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God
I've always had a problem reconciling my pity and empathy for serial killers (most assuredly disturbed, usually abused) with pity and empathy for their victims. That line about "boys with their cars, summer jobs" really got me, especially considering my little brother is about the same age as most of Gacy's victims. But the reconciliation comes later in the song:
And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid
Here's where my ability to express my gut reaction is going to break down. I just can't encapsulate it in a way that satisfies. I want to write a treatise on guilt, redemption, and how the light of Christ really is in us all, but is so often stifled by mental illness, abuse, and terror. This is when I wish I were a better writer.
Fortunately, Sufjan brings us back from that emotional trench with the very next song, "Jacksonville," which manages not to mock the previous song by being too flip, but still uplifts. "Andrew Jackson, all I'm asking, show us the wheel and give us the wine. Colored preacher, nice to meet you! The spirit is here and the spirit is fine!" The upward trajectory continues with songs like "Decatur, Or A Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother!" (in which he rhymes "Decatur" with "hate her") and, what might be the climax of the entire album, "Chicago." This is an sonally ambitious song with a sublime chorus:
you came to take us
all things go, all things go
to recreate us
all things grow, all things grow
we had our mindset
all things know, all things know
you had to find it
all things go, all things go
I don't know if his backing chorus is really made up of teenaged girls or not, but it has a teenaged spirit. There's an innocence and a wisdom intermingled here; the myopic idealism of youth, and the "it really is as simple as I thought it was when I was 17" idealism I hope I find with age.
There are too many songs for me to write about in just one entry, especially if I expect you guys to read the whole thing. I've probably already overstayed my welcome in this entry, for which I apologize. I am just so in love with this album.
The album is entitled "Sufjan Stevens Invites You To Come On Feel The Illinoise!" It is referred to in short form as "Illinois," but I think that this abbreviation really cuts out what is special about the title. So I'm breaking with tradition by abbreviating it "SSIYTCOFTI!" The exclamation point is very important.
The reason the album is called Illinois (or SSIYTCOFTI!) is that all of the songs are about Illinois, or people from there. Sufjan's-- because we're on a first name basis, natch-- we're both Episcopalians-- anyway, Sufjan's stated purpose is to create an album for every state in the nation. The one he did before this one was about Michigan, entitled "Sufjan Stevens Presents: Welcome To Michgan! The Great Lakes State" and called his backup band "The Michigan Militia." So you can see the level of brilliance we're working with here.
So anyway. The title of this entry is my favorite song title, but it's not even the longest one. The longest song title is "The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Gonna Have To Leave Now, Or, 'I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight..." The ellipses at the end of the title as it's listed on amazon.com suggest there may even be more to the song title than that!
(Please do understand that I'm getting my superficial delight with the album out of the way first, before I delve deeper. I do like it for more than its quirky song titles. However, the song titles, the "an album for each state" thing, and all that surface quirkiness is what originally attracted me to him, so I guess I'm hoping to reel you guys in with it like I was, before I drop the real science that blew my mind on about my 5th listening.)
Another superficial attraction for me was the SOUND. It's BIG. But somehow, it manages not to sound bombastic-- there's a certain humility to it, even with all its ambition. There's a string quartet backing him on many songs, along with a chorus of earnest-sounding singers, and he uses banjo and accordian for accent. Mike McGonigal reviews SSIYTCOFTI! on Amazon, describing it thusly: "Illinois sounds like The Sea and Cake collaborating with the high-school band from a Wes Anderson film on banjo-driven, pulsing meditations on Vince Guaraldi's music for Peanuts." And oddly enough, the description totally works. The first song I heard was one my brother sent to me, entitled "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!, Pt. I: The World's Columbian Exposition / Pt. II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In a Dream." It has xylophone accents, sweet little wind and horn bursts, thick instrumentation backing his modest vocals. About halfway through the song (the Pt II about Carl Sandburg, I can only assume) the sound changes and the winds and horns move into a Cure-inspired riff, a lot like "Close To Me." And yet, it all totally works seamlessly.
I mentioned earlier that Sufjan is an Episcopalian (also one of my initial attractions-- a Christian musician who doesn't Jesus up his music? Music informed by the three-legged stool of scripture, reason, and tradition? I'm totally there!). This becomes evident in the song "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," which manages to skirt the line between sympathy and contempt for a reviled figure, and encapsulate the spirit of the "People of Faith Against the Death Penalty" movement. I didn't listen to this song right away, because I was too busy listening to the three songs I was first addicted to, but based on my initial superficial listening I thought would be a lighthearted little ditty with cultural references, perhaps a clown motif. I was very wrong. It is heart-rending.
From the first verse:
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things
Rotting fast in their sleep of the dead
Twenty-seven people, even more
They were boys with their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God
I've always had a problem reconciling my pity and empathy for serial killers (most assuredly disturbed, usually abused) with pity and empathy for their victims. That line about "boys with their cars, summer jobs" really got me, especially considering my little brother is about the same age as most of Gacy's victims. But the reconciliation comes later in the song:
And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid
Here's where my ability to express my gut reaction is going to break down. I just can't encapsulate it in a way that satisfies. I want to write a treatise on guilt, redemption, and how the light of Christ really is in us all, but is so often stifled by mental illness, abuse, and terror. This is when I wish I were a better writer.
Fortunately, Sufjan brings us back from that emotional trench with the very next song, "Jacksonville," which manages not to mock the previous song by being too flip, but still uplifts. "Andrew Jackson, all I'm asking, show us the wheel and give us the wine. Colored preacher, nice to meet you! The spirit is here and the spirit is fine!" The upward trajectory continues with songs like "Decatur, Or A Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother!" (in which he rhymes "Decatur" with "hate her") and, what might be the climax of the entire album, "Chicago." This is an sonally ambitious song with a sublime chorus:
you came to take us
all things go, all things go
to recreate us
all things grow, all things grow
we had our mindset
all things know, all things know
you had to find it
all things go, all things go
I don't know if his backing chorus is really made up of teenaged girls or not, but it has a teenaged spirit. There's an innocence and a wisdom intermingled here; the myopic idealism of youth, and the "it really is as simple as I thought it was when I was 17" idealism I hope I find with age.
There are too many songs for me to write about in just one entry, especially if I expect you guys to read the whole thing. I've probably already overstayed my welcome in this entry, for which I apologize. I am just so in love with this album.