(t5!) Heroes Of The Zeroes Albums: #04: Sufjan Stevens – Illinois (2005)

The first thing you notice is the terrible title on the front: “SUFJAN STEVENS invites you to: Come on feel the ILLINOISE.” The jewel case spine, you detect as you turn it over, says simply Illinois, which is the name that the album is being sold as. Then you get to the back and you’re almost ready to use the CD as a coaster or a table leveler, because it has got the longest and worst song titles and song subtitles that you’ve ever seen. "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”?! "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!’”?! And there’s 22 of these monstrosities?! Seriously?!

But if you bought the album in 2005 (assuming you still buy albums in their physical forms) and stuck with it, you would’ve been rewarded. We know that Sufjan at his worst is just an inch away from his best. The twee titles are the unfortunate product of that ceaseless drive for self-expression, for the deliverance of the personal. Either that, or it’s all just a huge practical joke and you’ve all been had. If it’s such an inconvenience to you, you can call them “Track 1” or the one about the zombies or whatever. Sounds good? Let’s get to the songs.

It does feel like Michigan revived, its similarly geographically themed predecessor, in that it succeeds because this sound is so distinctively Sufjan and, also, so distinctively beautiful. Like the paragraph-long song titles suggest, it should feel like there’s too much going on, but it never does. In theory, Sufjan should look and sound overwhelmed, but his sense for arranging remains almost unsurpassed. Violins heighten the mood without being lachrymose, banjos throw in flavor without being mountainish, and all the arbitrary instruments pull centrifugally toward Sufjan, who whirl them bad boys back out in a single line.

The one about the zombies shows Sufjan’s precision. The music crescendos, in danger of being too much, showing signs of taking off, but he brings everything into a halt, exposing the song’s heart: “I tremble with the nervous thought/Of having been, at last, forgot.” The lyrics aren’t anything to write home about, but they unexpectedly know the right spots to hit. He floods you with the grandiloquence, and then strikes when both he and you are exposed.

His research of the Prairie State is definitely substantial but you’ve probably already addressed the big elephant in the room: why should you care about the history of a state in Middle America? The characters and stories of Illinois isn’t an end unto itself, but rather an entrance to the faith and uncertainties that haunts him. He’s using situations and historical figures to explore his own issues. “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” finds him admitting his interrelation with a serial killer, “Casimir Pulaski Day” is about struggling with God in the face of loss, “Chicago” is about self-discovery, and "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" has more religious symbolisms than the first Matrix.

He mentioned in an interview that he intended to make an album about the remaining 48 states. But he seem to abandon the plan, at least in this decade. Instead he followed up this 74-minute epic with a 75-minute collection of outtakes (Seriously!!!). We’re probably blessed that he wasn’t serious. I’m not sure if he can discover himself as triumphantly in the tales of other states, such as Rhode Island and South Dakota, however amusing it would’ve been to watch him try. Shorter track names though, Sufjan, that’d be my advice.