Sealed brand new copy
Like the self-proclaimed “Spiderman” who climbed Chicago’s Sears Tower with no harness, Sufjan Stevens scales dusty prairies, steel factories, and two hundred years of history in the second installment of his 50 State Project, “ILLINOIS”.
A 22-track anthematic tone poem to the Prairie State, emphatically answering the question, “Can a songwriter express the spirit of a state he’s never called home?” Sufjan weaves various musical styles (jazz, funk, pop) and instrumental textures into a tapestry of persons famous, infamous, and anonymous, and places iconic, obscure, and ghostly. Myths, memories, and incidental anecdotes are swept up with symphonic flourishes. Implementing 25 instruments, played mostly by Sufjan himself, a two-handed horn section, string quartet and small choir, Illinois conjures up images of Danny Elfman conducting a Gilbert and Sullivan company, a minimalist ensemble, and the Marion Catholic Marching Band on a windswept prairie football field.
Tracklist
A1 Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
A2 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!”
A3 Come On! Feel The Illinoise! Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream
A4 John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
A5 Jacksonville
A6 A Short Reprise For Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But For Very Good Reasons
B1 Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother!
B2 One Last “Whoo-Hoo!” For The Pullman
B3 Chicago
B4 Casimir Pulaski Day
B5 To The Workers Of The Rock River Valley Region, I Have An Idea Concerning Your Predicament
C1 The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
C2 Prairie Fire That Wanders About
C3 A Conjunction Of Drones Simulating The Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis In The Great Godfrey Maze
C4 The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!
C5 They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!
C6 Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Heard It All The Way Out In Bushnell
C7 In This Temple As In The Hearts Of Man For Whom He Saved The Earth
D1 The Seer’s Tower
D2 The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders Part I: The Great Frontier Part II: Come To Me Only With Playthings Now
D3 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
D4 Out Of Egypt, Into The Great Laugh Of Mankind, And I Shake The Dirt From My Sandals As I Run
D5 The Avalanche
