The Depths · All albums

Illinois

Sufjan Stevens · 2005

• Scores: Noise 1, Unease 1, Complexity 4 (each 1 to 5)
• Genre: Folk, Baroque Pop
• Mood: earnest, sprawling, ornate
• Sound: banjo, brass and strings, choral vocals, concept album, long song titles, shifting song structures, orchestral arrangements

Illinois is a 22-track concept album in which every song is tied to a person, place or event in the state, from the Black Hawk War to John Wayne Gacy Jr. and Casimir Pulaski Day. Stevens produced, engineered and recorded it himself on low-fidelity gear in his Brooklyn apartment and in collaborators’ apartments, building large, layered arrangements by multitracking oboe, recorders, banjo, glockenspiel, accordion, Casiotone, marching-band brass and a string quartet. Songs are split into parts, very short interludes (some under a minute) sit between the longer pieces, and “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” opens in 5/4 and shifts to 4/4. The titles are deliberately long and digressive. Stevens is a classically trained oboist who has cited minimalists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass, and the album is usually labelled indie folk or chamber folk.

Track list

1. Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois (2:08)
2. The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, “I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!” (2:14)
3. Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition / Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream) (6:45)
4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (3:19)
5. Jacksonville (5:24)
6. A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons (0:47)
7. Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother! (3:03)
8. One Last “Whoo-Hoo!” for the Pullman!! (0:06)
9. Chicago (6:04)
10. Casimir Pulaski Day (5:53)
11. To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament, and It Involves an Inner Tube, Bath Mats, and 21 Able-bodied Men (1:40)
12. The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts (6:17)
13. Prairie Fire That Wanders About (2:11)
14. A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze (0:19)
15. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! (5:23)
16. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh! (5:09)
17. Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell (0:40)
18. In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth (0:35)
19. The Seer’s Tower (3:53)
20. The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders (Part I: The Great Frontier / Part II: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now) (7:02)
21. Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few (0:46)
22. Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals as I Run (4:21)