News: Sufjan Stevens

Note: I’ve decided this is going to be a news AND reviews blog because… well, because I can. Not to mention it reminds me to log in here and say something a little more often.

Sufjan Stevens has announced the tracklisting for his upcoming “Illinois” project. If you haven’t heard of Sufjan (pronounced soof-yan) or just haven’t cared enough to give him the time of day yet, he claims to have the ambitious goal of writing fifty albums, one about each of the fifty United States. So far he’s got Michigan done (my introduction to Sufjan’s work), as well as a few non-state-themed albums. And now he has announced the track listing for his July 5 release, Illinois.

1. Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL
2. 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 Going to Have to Leave Now, or, “I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!”
3. Come on! Feel the Illinoise!
   -Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition
   -Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream
4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
5. Jacksonville
6. A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But for Very Good Reasons
7. Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step Mother!
8. One Last “Woo-hoo!” for the Pullman
9. Chicago
10. Casimir Pulaski Day
11. To the Workers of the Rockford River Valley Region, I have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament, and it involves shoe string, a lavender garland, and twelve strong women
12. The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
13. Prairie Fire That Wanders About
14. A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze
15. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
16. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh!
17. Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell
18. In This Temple, as in the Hearts of Man, for Whom He Saved the Earth
19. The Seer’s Tower
20. The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders
    -Part I: The Great Frontier
    -Part II: Come to Me Only With Playthings Now
21. Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few
22. Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I shake the dirt from my sandals as I run

If this hadn’t been reported on April 8th, the sheer humor behind these tracks would lead me to believe that Mr. Stevens was pulling some kind of April Fool’s joke on us. But apparently these tracks are named in all seriousness. Or complete lack of. We’ll have to wait and see.

Needless to say, I can’t wait for him to do California.

In other Sufjan news, the track “To Be Alone With You,” from his album Seven Swans, has been included on the compilation CD “Music From The O.C.: Mix 4.” There are mixed emotions on the use of such an underground hero’s music somewhere a little too pop-friendly.