NEW ALBUMS
SUFJAN STEVENS
Javelin ASTHMATIC KITTY
Spirituality, self-doubt and a Neil Young cover on Sufjan’s latest.
By Stephen Deusner
Sufjan Stevens: quiet songs that speak loudly
PHOTO COURTESY OF SUFJAN STEVENS
8/10
LIKE all Sufjan Stevens albums, Javelin opens quietly. There’s a sharp preparatory inhalation, then a few gentle piano chords and Stevens singing as softly as an internal monologue. It suggests an intimate moment, as though he’s unaware that anyone is listening. From there “Goodbye Evergreen” builds patiently, adding new elements until it spills over into a cacophony of voices and beats: the personal erupting into the communal. At times it seems like Stevens can barely control the music as it continually shapeshifts and absorbs new ideas, but that’s an illusion: he’s one of the most meticulous craftsmen to survive indie rock’s 2000s heyday, and his carefully structured arrangements – as tidy as a Wes Anderson shot – only make the emotions he evokes sound wild, sprawling, uncontainable.