![]() ![]() ![]() Sufjan (pronounced SOOF-YAHN) Stevens is a Detroit native who describes himself as "Anglo-Catholic" and his Christianity as "the most important thing in my life." He was a relatively unknown quantity on the music scene until 2003, when he released his third album, Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State. It seemed nearly impossible that a musician whose songs are unabashedly informed by his faith could actually produce quality material. The genre is typically marred by the predictable, heavy-handed musical stylings of any number of cookie-cutter bands whose evangelical intentions guide their aesthetics. What initially blinded me to the nature of Stevens’s songs was simply the fact that I find most contemporary Christian music dreadful. ![]() How had this escaped me the previous dozen times I’d heard the song? I had majored in theology, for Lamb of God’s sake how could I have missed the explicitly theological nature of this song? Of the entire album? More important, what sort of a musician and songwriter would write such a piece? Lost in the cloud, a sign, Son of Man, Son of God." Lost in the cloud, a voice, Lamb of God, we draw near. But there they were, floating above the track’s gorgeous final crescendo: "Lost in the cloud, a sign, Son of Man, turn your ear. Not that I should have been surprised-the song that had struck me most after all is called "The Transfiguration." I was so transfixed by the song’s lush, unusual musical landscape-starting with a simple banjo and building to a layered mix of horns, drums, guitar, keyboard, and xylophone-that I had barely noticed the words. After a week of obsessive listening, it suddenly hit me: he’s using messianic language. For the better part of the last month my iPod has served as little more than a delivery vehicle for the music of Sufjan Stevens, a thirty-year-old Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |