gush time

time for me to gush about another album.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
installment two of Sufjan Stevens's 50 States project brings him to the Land of Lincoln, where he waxes poetic on predatory wasps, serial killers, UFO sightings, Casimir Pulaski Day, and Carl Sandburg. each song is beautiful on its own, but as an album, it's absolutely deadly. it's been described as a 74-minute tone poem to the state of Illinois, but i think that description makes the album sound like it's going to be boring or heavy-handed or "artistic" (in the most pejorative sense that word can have). the truth is that i haven't heard an album as gorgeous, melodic, and cohesive as this one for quite some time.

and if you're lucky, you might even be able to get your hands on a copy with the original artwork. (DC Comics got a little upset over the fact that they put Superman on the cover without getting permission.)

killer tracks: "Jacksonville," "Chicago," "Casimir Pulaski Day," "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts," "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!"