EDIT: I’m fifteen minutes into this, and I like it a lot. It’s very scatterbrained, and I like scatterbrained right now. He sounds very much like a recording nerd on this record, which I appreciate.

The Age of Adz will be out 10/12 on Asthmatic Kitty.

Stevens’s excellent All Delighted People EP can be heard, for free, here.

#6: Sufjan Stevens, “Decatur, or, A Round of Applause For Your Stepmother!” (2005)

I spent 2005 studying abroad— or, at least, this is what I tell people. In truth I was in Canada, at an audio production and engineering school. It was cold (predictably), and I didn’t know anyone. When I wasn’t studying I spent most of my free time wandering around Toronto with headphones on, composing a sort of mental slideshow of pictures and music from a strange experience in my head. Certain music I cannot help but associate with that place and time, some of it understandably—Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade’s first record— and some of it for reasons even I don’t understand (for instance, I spent a good portion of that winter listening compulsively to Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk).

But the record that epitomizes that time to me is Sufjan Steven’s generally epic Illinois. Not that I’m alone here—Illinois was a big record in 2005—but I was surprised by the way it absorbed me, and, to be honest, it sort of scared me. When I first heard “Decatur”, as an mp3 on the internet to promote the yet-to-be-released record, I listened to it over and over while I searched the internet until four in the morning for a leak of the record (all the while with Stevens melodically, creepily singing directly into my brain via my headphones “Stay awake, and watch for the data…”). The next day it was raining, but I took a very long walk anyway around the city so I could listen to the 70+ minute record in its entirety, twice.

I don’t know what about “Decatur” did that to me, specifically, but as a song it’s super-likeable. The dual-voice melody and its simple, unique arrangement makes it sound at first listen both warmly familiar and totally unique. It’s a short song, so it takes a long time to wear out its welcome, instead beckoning the listener to put it on again, and again, etc.

Since then I’ve not been particularly interested in Stevens’ output; in fact, there are some things I’ve realized I just plain don’t like about Stevens (for example, his refusal to continue working on the 50 states project post-Illinois. Also: those creepy wings), but at the time I, being someone who doesn’t like crowds or loud music, and generally prefer recorded music to live music, was convinced to walk two hours and beg for extra tickets to see a sold-out Sufjan Stevens show in a church in North Toronto. Regardless of how I feel now about it, it was worth it to be able now to reflect on a time when I was so moved by music— a feeling I can only try, over and over, to recreate.