Best Ever Albums

Re: Carrie and Lowell

SleepDealer — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 15:21:48 GMT

Author: SleepDealer

Posted: 04/11/2015 19:21

I love it. Difficult to compare to his previous releases. For me it is up there with Michigan, Illinois and The Age of Adz - impossible to separate these objectively.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

craola — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 02:23:48 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 04/11/2015 06:23

i guess i don't hear the music as monotonous. the instrumentation perhaps doesn't vary much, but it doesn't need to. it's mostly pretty down-tempo, i guess. but what are you expecting? it's not prog-rock. it doesn't need to do too much. musically, there's still of lot of depth and intrigue. if you're looking for dramatic, edge-of-your-seat or meet-me-on-the-floor-pyt, then you're not going to find it here, but as far as melodramatic, pensive introversion goes, it's all here.

lyrically, this album is gorgeous and as far from monotonous as it gets. listening to this album feels almost like reading a book or thumbing through someone's old journals and photo albums. i find the only thing particularly moving. anyone who's lost a parent knows the pain he's going through. he wants to rip his heart out. he sees no reason to go on living - not in the world-revolves-around-me sense but in a my-loved-ones-left-without-me sense.

in contrast to his other albums, this album just comes across as infinitely more sincere. he tends to be a little too overambitious and self-indulgent, his reach exceeding his grasp time and again. here, he does away with the eletronics that were so distracting on age of adz. he does away with the beautiful but tedious and excessive sweeping string sections. the song titles don't take thirty-seconds to recite. the themes aren't so ambiguous that you're left puzzling over what emotions are supposed to overtake you. the end delivery is still enchanting but much simpler, and that's all it ever really needed to be. he's not trying so hard to be "sufjan is so cool" anymore. this album is personal, unpretentious, post-ironic, pensive and poignant.

i've long been a sufjan fan, i suppose, but for me, this is the first and only time he's really blown it out of the park.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

Pavement415 — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 01:54:30 GMT

Author: Pavement415

Posted: 04/11/2015 05:54

rayword45 wrote:

So, I decided to make this my first Sufjan listen. And I've listened 3 times now.

-The first song is fucking gorgeous
-For some bizarre reason, however, the remainder of the first half makes me irrationally angry. Like, beat someone up angry.
-Then the second half just bores me.

YES. I've never had this reaction to any acoustic album before, and I can't seem to find the trigger here..

Re: Carrie and Lowell

HazeyTwilight — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 20:19:21 GMT

Author: HazeyTwilight

Posted: 04/11/2015 00:19

rayword45 wrote:

How much am I likely to enjoy his prior releases?

You will definitely like his work from Michigan to Illinois. His electronica pursuits may take a while to get used to if you haven't already.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

rayword45 — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 20:12:45 GMT

Author: rayword45

Posted: 04/11/2015 00:12

So, I decided to make this my first Sufjan listen. And I've listened 3 times now.

-The first song is fucking gorgeous
-For some bizarre reason, however, the remainder of the first half makes me irrationally angry. Like, beat someone up angry.
-Then the second half just bores me.

How much am I likely to enjoy his prior releases?

Re: Carrie and Lowell

gerhard — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 10:38:21 GMT

Author: gerhard

Posted: 04/05/2015 14:38

geez, you folks have this same discussion on like, every thread

Re: Carrie and Lowell

craola — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 01:37:57 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 04/05/2015 05:37

Gigantic wrote:

"objective appreciation" is unobtainable anyway

this i agree with.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

Anonymous — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 01:27:59 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/05/2015 05:27

Gigantic wrote:

it's not a particularly "crazy" idea - i know a guy for example who wanted to "understand" ♪avant-garde jazz♪ so he just forced himself to listen to and relisten to the staples until he "got" them. did he actually "get" them or did he just acclimatize himself to them?

although so much of what we like is dependent on so many other variables - nostalgia, association, desire, etc. that "objective appreciation" is unobtainable anyway

Well if he thinks he gets them and enjoys thinking that he gets them than who's to say he doesn't enjoy them?

That is very true though about all the different variables, though it's funny how none of them hold any real sway over the others. I've got stuff I adore because of nostalgia but then other stuff I loved around the same time I can't stand anymore, so there most be other associations that elevates one above the other for me. It's hard to really tell why I even like albums anymore, I just do.

Sometimes I just look at Norm and Mecca's ratings to decide what I think. 🤣

Re: Carrie and Lowell

Gigantic — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 01:23:58 GMT

Author: Gigantic

Posted: 04/05/2015 05:23

Silver wrote:

I Stockholm Syndrome myself with every single album I've ever loved.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

Anonymous — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 01:13:53 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/05/2015 05:13

Gigantic wrote:

Listened to the first half with my girlfriend while baking crescent rolls. Hasn't made much of an impact on me.

Michigan and Illinois both left their mark with me as soon as they'd started.

So maybe it could be said that Carrie and Lowell is "less immediate" or w.e. Maybe that makes it less good to me?

I'm often skeptical about this whole "after multiple listens" bs. After multiple listens any album is going to leave an impression on you - just look at how many times Applerill has listened to BrokeNCYDE. do we just force ourselves to like the albums we want to like (via forced repetition) bcuz they'll make us feel "cool"?

I Stockholm Syndrome myself with every single album I've ever loved.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

FlorianJones — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 00:40:12 GMT

Author: FlorianJones

Posted: 04/05/2015 04:40

craola wrote:

It's not BS. After multiple listens, any album will leave an impression, true, but that impression is not always a good one. Albums with depth grow on me. Albums without depth burn out fast.

I agree with this completely. Often on first listen an album will seem either boring or bizarre, and I won't care for it but after a few more listens, I start to love it. On the other side of this, I'll sometimes listen to an album and think to myself "yeah, this is really fun I like this" but after a half dozen listens, it already feels boring and overplayed. That's why I always make a point to listen to something several times and live with it for a bit before I make a judgement.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

craola — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 00:27:34 GMT

Author: craola

Posted: 04/05/2015 04:27

Gigantic wrote:

I'm often skeptical about this whole "after multiple listens" bs. After multiple listens any album is going to leave an impression on you - just look at how many times Applerill has listened to BrokeNCYDE. do we just force ourselves to like the albums we want to like (via forced repetition) bcuz they'll make us feel "cool"?

It's not BS. After multiple listens, any album will leave an impression, true, but that impression is not always a good one. Albums with depth grow on me. Albums without depth burn out fast.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

Gigantic — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 00:06:26 GMT

Author: Gigantic

Posted: 04/05/2015 04:06

Listened to the first half with my girlfriend while baking crescent rolls. Hasn't made much of an impact on me.

Michigan and Illinois both left their mark with me as soon as they'd started.

So maybe it could be said that Carrie and Lowell is "less immediate" or w.e. Maybe that makes it less good to me?

I'm often skeptical about this whole "after multiple listens" bs. After multiple listens any album is going to leave an impression on you - just look at how many times Applerill has listened to BrokeNCYDE. do we just force ourselves to like the albums we want to like (via forced repetition) bcuz they'll make us feel "cool"?

Re: Carrie and Lowell

RockyRaccoon — Sat, 4 Apr 2015 20:38:36 GMT

Author: RockyRaccoon

Posted: 04/05/2015 00:38

So I finally listened to this and I completely understand the love. Truly a beautifully honest, emotionally raw album. Absolutely incredible.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

gerhard — Thu, 2 Apr 2015 00:48:45 GMT

Author: gerhard

Posted: 04/02/2015 04:48

Muslim-Bigfoot wrote:

I listened to this once and what I felt was that this album assumes you're gonna take the sincerity for granted and take it from there. Like with the minimal instrumentation and the rhetorical universally poetic intimate lyrics. I can't bring myself to enjoy it very much. It had its moments though when there was actual poetic beauty and some surprising lines and stuff but overall can't dig the atmosphere. I really can't enjoy vague poeticism when it takes center stage. It would be another story if it was buried down in the music or sth.

Really, I think questioning the sincerity of the lyrics is kind of ridiculous. Nor are they vague, lacking in particularity or wit. He's singing about some of the most important, personal issues in his life- abandonment, death of loved ones, drug addiction. Each line speaks volumes and relates concretely to the rest of the poem. It takes more than one listen to support a literary critique. Of course, if you didn't like the atmosphere/wish there was more music, fine, that's your taste

Re: Carrie and Lowell

zdwyatt — Wed, 1 Apr 2015 09:38:49 GMT

Author: zdwyatt

Posted: 04/01/2015 13:38

benpaco wrote:

[Favorable comparison to For Emma, Forever Ago is] high praise though ... IDK if it'll live up to that.

It won't. It's good (in my top 10 for the year at the moment), but it's not that good. And it certainly isn't better than Illinois.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

Anti — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 21:50:38 GMT

Author: Anti

Posted: 04/01/2015 01:50

I'm very excited to listen to this album. My one friend had it on in the background and it was enough to convince me to purchase on vinyl ($14 is a steal for a special edition, clear vinyl). I will definitely pop it on the turntable once I get home for Easter. I don't want to submit my rating yet because I wasn't committed to the listen entirely. But even with that, I am confident that I will enjoy this album completely.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

Muslim-Bigfoot — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 19:21:49 GMT

Author: Muslim-Bigfoot

Posted: 03/31/2015 23:21

I listened to this once and what I felt was that this album assumes you're gonna take the sincerity for granted and take it from there. Like with the minimal instrumentation and the rhetorical universally poetic intimate lyrics (I wanted to write just "intimate lyrics" but intimate lyrics with enough particularity and a little quirk and wit can become not only tolerable but also enjoyable but in contrast "intimate lyrics" without that needed amount of particularity and quirk and wit just become what I called "rhetorical universally poetic intimacy") I can't bring myself to enjoy it very much. It had its moments though when there was actual poetic beauty and some surprising lines and stuff but overall can't dig the atmosphere. I really can't enjoy vague poeticism when it takes center stage. It would be another story if it was buried down in the music or sth.

Re: Carrie and Lowell

gerhard — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 18:09:55 GMT

Author: gerhard

Posted: 03/31/2015 22:09

yeah, joking. i do that

Re: Carrie and Lowell

Patman360 — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 03:33:26 GMT

Author: Patman360

Posted: 03/31/2015 07:33

Very good alright, top 10 easily for this year so far once I update my chart again. Not far off Illinois.