{"id":13342,"date":"2005-12-29T03:09:00","date_gmt":"2005-12-29T03:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.wordpress.com\/2005\/12\/29\/sufjan-stevens-is-my-new-hero\/"},"modified":"2012-10-28T17:17:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-28T23:17:59","slug":"sufjan-stevens-is-my-new-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2005\/12\/sufjan-stevens-is-my-new-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Sufjan Stevens is my new hero."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I liked his Seven Swans<\/em> album.<\/p>\n

Then I grew to love it.<\/p>\n

I liked his Illinois<\/em> album.<\/p>\n

These days, I love it more than I can say. The two songs \u201cJohn Wayne Gacy Jr.\u201d and \u201cCasimir Pulaski Day\u201d are better on their own than any other full album I\u2019ve heard all year.<\/p>\n

And now this\u2026 NPR has rated Illinois<\/em> as the album of the year<\/a>, and says, \u201cSufjan Stevens new album isn\u2019t just this year\u2019s best album, it\u2019s the best album to come out in several years. In an era when most of the music we hear is derivative of eras past, it\u2019s not just a relief to hear something as fresh as Come on and Feel the Illinoise,<\/em> it\u2019s downright extraordinary. Sufjan Stevens\u2019 sound is his alone. Add his ambition (the 50 albums for 50 states project is unlike anything in the history of music) to his sincerity and lyrical ingenuity and it\u2019s no wonder he\u2019s produced an entire album\u2019s worth of songs that send shivers up the spines of all different kinds of music lovers around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

And to make things even more stupdenously exciting\u2026 get a load of this<\/a>. It\u2019s the best answer given in any musician interview I\u2019ve read all year (including Bono\u2019s stuff.) (Thanks, Heather, for noticing this and sharing it!)<\/p>\n

If you only know one or two things about Sufjan Stevens, chances are the second is that he is a practising Christian who isn\u2019t afraid to let his beliefs impact upon his work. \u201cIf someone asked, I would say that I was born again. I would look you right in the eye and say it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about CCM. I\u2019m not an evangelist. I\u2019m a songwriter and a storyteller. If that story happens to be about Christ, then perhaps, in some odd semantic way, the song could be termed \u2018evangelical\u2019. I gladly accept that. I also sing about divorce. And murder. And adultery. I sing about chickens and war and bathrooms. In my mind, the gospel is not something to pander and pawn off like a diet soda drink. There is no product. There is no selling point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what it means to be born again: to fully and completely disengage with the preconceptions and preoccupations of the adult world and its religions, to dismantle all laws \u2013 of physics and society \u2013 and yield yourself to the birth canal, and what comes after, in which everything begins to shake and tremble with all senses fully turned to the centre of the universe, the creator, God the Father, in whose cultivation we begin to know and understand our true selves, our real selves, as a reflection of God\u2019s image, his creation, like newborn babies, full, fresh, suckling, elated and laughing at everything. But honestly, I have no idea how this relates to my music. I hate talking about this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to spend less time talking about God and more time being in God\u2019s presence. I think that would put an end to this conversation, once and for all.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Due to the outdated link, here\u2019s a link to Andy Whitman\u2019s blog<\/a>.]<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I liked his Seven Swans album. Then I grew to love it. I liked his Illinois album. These days, I love it more than I can say. The two songs \u201cJohn Wayne Gacy Jr.\u201d and \u201cCasimir Pulaski Day\u201d are better on their own than any other full album I\u2019ve heard all year. And now this\u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[689,163,285,351],"class_list":["post-13342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-contemporary-christian-music","tag-interviews-2","tag-quotable","tag-sufjan-stevens"],"yoast_head":"\nSufjan Stevens is my new hero.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I liked his Seven Swans album. Then I grew to love it. I liked his Illinois album. These days, I love it more than I can say. 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