The Age Of Adz
by Sufjan Stevens

I'm never sure about this album. Sufjan Stevens, previously a melodic, mostly acoustic christian folk song writer takes a five year hiatus and then comes out with this cacophony of an album. Bizzarre detours, mad orchestration and unpredictable electronics all barge at you at once as Sufjan Stevens, for the first time, really screams his most personal and effective lyrics yet - even exclaiming multiple times in "I Want To be Well", 'I'm Not Fuckin' Around' - when that's exactly what he's doing on this album. What this album suffers from is filler. At least 20 minutes of the album is barely cohesive and not enjoyable - when the madness comes together magic is really created, but it doesn't always happens. It makes me smile though, when at the end Sufjan Sings solemny - almost returning to his previous style "Boy, we made such a mess together" - you sure did Sufjan, you made a complete mess of an album that no sane person would call music, and that's why it's so fantastic.

From Jhlffc 04/01/2019 22:32 | #234373 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

The Kid A of the 2010s, arguably kicked off the trend (Reflektor, Bon Iver, Sleep Well Beast) of 2000s indie acts becoming more experimental and electronic (Edited)

From covecove TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/28/2010 00:55 | #16927 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Great combo of styles create one of the best albums of this year the sensibility of Stevens' voice is a brutal contrast with the intense experimental electronic style that is predominant through out the record, lyrically it is as provoking as ever and the impressive and ambicious 25 minute long Impossible soul is probably the most important song in years. I have to concur with the previous review, I don't tkink I've hear such a leap forward from an artist like this since Radiohead followed OK Computer with Kid A

This was my first Sufjan CD ever. I had ignored him all the time. So I didn't know what to expect. When I listened to to it,I thought: "WTF? This is pretty heavy stuff!" After the second time I thought: "Crazy music". When I listened to it the third time: "There are actually great melodies under all the layers of sounds!!" So I listened to it over and over for one year. I couldn't stop listening to that record. I was addicted. Now I can say: this is my favourite album ever and Sufjan is my favourite artist (together with Frank Zappa, which sounds weird but it's not, they got a lot in common)

This isn't quite Sufjan's best work, but the extended piece that closes the album is maybe the single best track he's recorded. An overall great record, if a little inconsistent (the middle tracks in particular are not as great as the opening and closing tracks).