The first half is excellent, but it definitely drops off after that

The songs more than make up for the dozen or so filler tracks

This album has a lot of stirring, beautiful passages and a few long, precious experiments that I tend to skip over. Generally, the successful tracks are very, very successful, couldn't be more poetic and engaging. It came out when I was living in Jacksonville, Illinois, which is a very small and remote town that doesn't even have a bus station but has a lot of character and old-fashioned midwestern traditions, and I was pretty excited that Sufjan Stevens had a song about this town on this album, one of the best songs here. Listening to the song evokes summery, grassy memories of the town and the surrounding cornfields, so i guess i listened to it a lot there. Another highlight for me is "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades ..." which mixes impressions of nostalgia, suppressed desire, rural naivite and tragedy, i guess? I tend to imagine my own sad narratives for the song. Anyway, a very stirring piece of music.

How Sufjan Stevens is able to create an album with so much joy and sadness in it at the same time amazes me. I hope in 100 years people still listen to this.

Best Track: Casimir Pulaski Day

Sufjan Stevens creates an energetic and immersive atmosphere. His songwriting is amazing. This album is comparable to music by Bob Dylan. Sufjan is my favorite 21st-century songwriter. I still am in awe of the fact that almost everything you hear on this album came from one man. He truly is a musical genius.

My personal favorite Sufjan album, as its a great album to listen to when traveling, as well as having a mostly upbeat tone throughout the album.

Favorite Song: Chicago

Special album, but overrated in my opinion. Fully agree with Crimson that the second half of album consists of fillers, exclusively.Some, like Seer's Tower, are so boring I really struggle to even get the end of that song. Having said that, some very good tracks on the first half of the album (Jacksonville, Chicago and Casimir Pulaski Day). Definitely not Top-100 of all times material

You know, the melodies here are really great, and Stevens has a very good voice for his type of music, but sometimes this album gets on my nerves.

It's so crisp and clean and careful. I wish he would slouch his shoulders every once in a while and not be so austere. Sometimes it feels like the soundtrack to a broadway play--just a little too sing-songy to be good rock music.

He's a great writer though. Musically I mean. His words are fluff. The production is really kind of beautiful too. It's like wine or something--good in small doses.

Love all the orchestration. Modern day Frank Zappa

This album is a little overhyped. Yes, it has great songs.; yes, the production is good and the orchestration well done; but it has a lot of problems. To start there's a massive amount of filler here. Half of the tracks are filler and whoever says anything else is not being realistic. The first half of the album is packed with great songs, but after Chicago it becomes a bunch of filler. Now, the good tracks are great, but not as genio us as people think. They draw a lot of inspiration from the Smile era Beach Boys. The song and album structure is almost a copycat: a lot of "passages" -the Beach Boys are very superior in this matters-, a long over the top song with lots of little pieces that make it feel like a symphony. The list goes on.
In my opinion this album is just OK. It has good songs but the amount of filler kills it. Even without the filler, is not reinventing the wheel as most people think.