Track Listing

1. Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
2. Black Hawk War, Or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and ...
3. Come on! Feel the Illinoise!: Pt. 1: The World's Columbian Exposition
4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
5. Jacksonville
6. Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But for Very Good ...
7. Decatur, Or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!
8. One Last "Whoo-Hoo!" for the Pullman
9. Chicago
10. Casimir Pulaski Day
11. To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea ...
12. Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
13. Prairie Fire That Wanders About
14. Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens ...
15. Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is out to Get Us!
16. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from
17. Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It
18. In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth
19. Seer's Tower
20. Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders: Pt. 1: The Great Frontier/Pt. ...
21. Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, ...
22. Out of Egypt, Into the Great Laugh of Mankind, And I Shake the ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1065 in Music
• Released on: 2005-07-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
Subtitled Come On Feel The..., Sufjan Stevens & The Michigan Militia have moved to Illinois (dubbing themselves the Illinoisemakers) but this new album is the same Sufjan we know and love. Fingerpicked ballads of delicate twang, tasteful orchestration, and titles that are murder on the ID3 tags. While this album unmistakably owes its inspiration to the sound of Michigan, Sufjan has managed to take his orchestra-like folk template and expand on it, tapping into unexpected genres and bringing unexpected instruments like strings and woodwinds to the forefront, all while relating tales of the state's history as well as possibly fictional stories about its residents. To sweeten the deal, Sufjan's vocals have also improved some: he's managed to make his thin, meek vocal presence a little more noticeable, and while that doesn't stop him from using members of the quirky Danielson Famile as his own personal choir, it's nice to hear him sound more assured on some of this album's mellower moments. Rough Trade. 2005.

Amazon.com
Illinois sounds like The Sea and Cake collaborating with the high-school band from a Wes Anderson film on banjo-driven, pulsing meditations on Vince Guaraldi's music for Peanuts. Sufjan Stevens, the singer-songwriter behind the endeavor, is an earnest and whimsical young man who aims to record an album based on every state in the union, though this is just his second attempt since 2003's Michigan. Lavish praise has been heaped upon this precocious twenty-something, who weaves personal recollections, historical narratives, and strange facts together to create lush portraits of Midwestern life. It's not maudlin stuff, and the atypical instrumentation (strings, choirs, trumpets, vibes) is beyond gimmick. Halfway through "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," when Stevens has you feeling true empathy for a serial killer, it's clear that he really is an artist of the highest order. These are weird and lovely middlebrow ditties; we eagerly await the Broadway adaptation. --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews

Quite possibly this year's masterwork
Sufjan Stevens is a puzzling character; sometimes naive, sometimes sophisticated, somewhat rustic and yet essentially urban in outlook. But there a few things he never seems to exhibit: crassness, boredom, or jaded irony. Instead he appears defenseless and in full flower on "Illinois", an album of remarkable breadth, depth and ambition.

It is precisely his lack of sneering superiority that makes "Illinois" such a treat. These lengthy, wordy poem/songs, these complex instrumental arrangements and daunting pop structures could all be so much ego run amok, like a bad progressive rock album. But that doesn't happen. Instead, we are treated to a song cycle so fresh and honest I hardly know where to start.

From the sweet quietness of the opening number (which turns an actual UFO sighting in 2000 into a revelatory experience) to the nearly presumptuous overture that follows, one gets a glimpse of what will follow. Imagery follows tone follows place follows events both personal and public in a seamless fabric. By the time we are through the title cut on track 3, he has already taken us through a small American symphony of ideas. We have wondered about God and aliens, considered the great icons of the state of Illinois, met with the ghost of Carl Sandburg and wondered if we are being honest with our art in the first place; surely one of the most breathtaking 11 minutes I can recall on CD.

The mood is quietly shattered with "John Wayne Gacy Jr.", probably the most haunted song in recent memory. If this one doesn't make you choke a little, check your pulse. By portraying a serial killer as human after all, he draws our attention to the flaws in every heart. He understands that demons have no souls, but people - even mass murderers - do. Watch out.

Several reviews have commented on Sufjan Steven's Christianity. While is it true that there are references to his faith throughout, it is presented so tenderly and with such openness that it is frankly above criticism and simply a part of the undeniable human experience. Whatever truths and doubts he mentions by way of faith are shared by us all, from atheists to the most devout. So while I do not share his faith I do share the common condition and so understand what he means perfectly.

I could continue, but really I just want people to hear this album all the way through, carefully. Good headphones are revelatory for this one. To shuffle the songs or pick out a few is almost a crime - "Illinois" is a complete work of astonishing freshness, and I find it difficult to imagine how it will be topped in the next 6 months.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this road trip...
Is Sufjan Stevens insane?

"Illinois" is only the second stop on a planned collection of 50 state-themed albums. It's the type of project whose sheer scale and mad ambition boggle the mind, calling forth a number of rhetorical questions: Is he really going to spend the bulk of his career on such a huge project? Given the fact that "Michigan" came out two years ago, shouldn't he pick up the pace a bit? Will he really make a separate album for, say, North and South Dakota?

I hope so.

Illinois is a great album, almost certainly the best of the year so far. It opens with a delicate and beautiful piano track entitled "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois." From there, Stevens criss-crosses the state, heading to Jacksonville, Decatur and Chicago, creating a musical travelogue as thorough as any Rand McNally guidebook.

Importantly, Stevens doesn't spend all his time going from point A to point B; he also stops to get to know people, writing about everyone from John Wayne Gacy to Superman to Abraham Lincoln to Carl Sandburg. Some of the references amount to little more than name-dropping, but the beautiful Superman song and the haunting Gacy track show that, most of the time, Stevens is really trying to understand how a place could be embodied by such disparate characters.

Thematically, too, he covers a lot of ground. "Oh, God of progress, have you degraded or forgot us? Where have your walls gone? I think about it now," he asks in what is probably the only song that will ever be written about the Columbian Exposition of 1893. For good measure, he throws in a little religious imagery later in the album; though his observations here feel a little self-centered and angry, you have to give him credit for honesty and candor.

Musically, Stevens borrows from a range of styles, from Iron and Wine's hushed folkiness to Philip Glass's bright string and flute and vibraphone arrangements. Somehow he pulls it all together, though; the album's tone ranges from the playful optimism of "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" to the breathy atmospherics of "The Seer's Tower" but still feels like the creation of a single creative genius. "Are you writing from the heart? Are you writing from the heart?" the ghost of Carl Sandburg asks him on the third track; the next song, the chilling "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." answers with a resounding yes.

I'd never heard of Stevens before hearing the glowing reviews for this album; now that I've heard it, I'm looking forward to catching up with a musical trip down I-94 to "Michigan." Hopefully by the time I'm done exploring his back catalog, he'll have the next state done, and hopefully it'll be as good as "Illinois"; even though I wonder how he can possibly finish this cross-country odyssey, I'm looking forward to riding shotgun.

Thinking outragiously, I'll review in cursef
I'll admit it, I'm a corporate tool. I bought this album for the sole reason that Amazon named it the top album of 2005. I've been aching to find something new and interesting (my Flogging Molly and Phillip Glass albums were getting worn out). Since I hadn't seen anyone named Sufjan on American Idol, and the album wasn't getting shoved down the throats of us consumers I thought that Amazon may be trying to make a statement for the betterment of music.

Thank Goodness!!

I played it first when leaving town for a 20 hour Thankgiving round trip, I didn't know that it would be the only thing played on the radio the whole trip. While previous review rant about the first couple of tracks, I think they bouced over the truely great tracks. I found "The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" as a beautifully contradiction on itself. I told a friend about htis track, and he was shocked I used terms like innocent & lovely on something named after a bug. I love the way "The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" transitions between tempos. But my favorite track is by far "Cashmir Pulaski Day". When I fully understood what Cashmir Pulasky Day was about, I was bought to tears.

Most of the time, music shoved at us doesn't deserve our well earned money. This album is worth a listen. This artist deserves our support. This 50 state concept is a pipedream, but I am glad there are still dreamers in the music industry and if this is the result of dreams then I will keep buying.