THE ASCENSION is the eight studio album by american musician Sufjan Stevens, released September 25th, 2020. But is it good?
Sufjan Stevens has always been a very interesting artist to me. He's demonstrated his ability to write and compose some absolutely incredible songs- there are some cuts from 2005's ILLINOIS and 2015's CARRIE AND LOWELL that stun me on every listen- but my main problem is that lots of Stevens' records are unbelievably long and dense: the aforementioned ILLINOIS being 74 minutes, 2010's THE AGE OF ADZ at 75 and his latest effort here at a whopping 80 minutes. So you probably wont be surprised to hear I went "oh, here we go again" when I saw the 80 minute/15 track tracklisting. So as a result, I've never really "gotten into" his work properly, despite spending a fairly considerable amount of time listening to his music. So where does that leave THE ASCENSION?
Well, let's start at the start. First track MAKE ME AN OFFER I CANNOT REFUSE announces the album's IDM intentions eloquently- the beat is icy, almost reminiscent of Radiohead's Idioteque, but of course with Stevens' trademark heavenly brushstrokes- his lyrics sound like he wants to be ascended (yeh,) to a higher plane. The lines often feel like they're coming at you from multiple different angles with the cutting effects and the incredible backing vocals. The track ends on this tension building beat ascension that finishes on a warm synth hum. Very strong opener.
RUN AWAY WITH ME is alot more low key, with Stevens' vocals taking more of a central role than before. The track is a pretty standard love ballad, with a chorus that's memorable but not impressive. The build up in the final chorus is sonically impressive, which ends the track on a high note. VIDEO GAME is a track that's grown on me since initial listens. It's a little repetitive but overall it's fine, doesn't really break much new ground but does evoke some of Bjork's work on records like Homogenic and Vespertine.
LAMENTATIONS starts of with this glitchy quirky beat before it recedes for Stevens' vocals. His vocals are sweet and have a really cool echo effect on them, and play a cool game of call and response in the chorus. The instrument in the second half manages to be danceable and heavenly, which you could say about alot of this record. TELL ME YOU LOVE ME slows the album down again for various choruses of Sufjan singing different lines to each other- it's a really really pretty part of the record, even if the writing is a little generic. It's an extremely comforting song, the backing vocals have an incredible texture and the climax in the last minute of the track is brilliant too.
DIE HAPPY is almost tonally opposite to the previous track, with this melancholy synth tone leading the track, as Stevens' is only able to say "I wanna die happy....". The track's production, although initially sparse, is stunning and beautiful. The track keeps building and growing with more elements leading up to this IDM explosion where the track brilliants releases all this tension into this beautifully rhythmic dance experience, and the track ends on the same mournful note it started on. Definitely a highlight.
ATIVAN is a song named after the anxiety medication which the song also appears to be about- the lyrics and sonic atmosphere are anxious, and the hook is incredibly sticky. That being said, some of the lyrical choices are still questionable- "I shit my pants and wet the bed" is uncomfortably personal. The track ends with a glitchy IDM bug out with bleep bloop sounds, and then a trembling string section afterwards. The track never drags despite the 6:32 runtime.
URSA MAJOR is another great track. The track's production flips between pretty harmonies and glitchy electronic parts, and the hook on this track goes so hard with Sufjan singing "I wanna love you" back and forth with himself. Just solid, not a lot to say. LANDSLIDE has a beat that sounds like a slight retreading from earlier in the album, but the vocals and lyricism are really solid, maybe aside from the line "Let's take a walk in the circle of light". The chorus picks up the energy from the relatively low-key verses, and there's even a twisted guitar solo midway thru. This track definitely has one of the best vocal performances on the whole record.
GIGLAMESH is characterized by noisey effects and an uncharacteristically harsh atmosphere- often smothering the vocals, but still being really interesting nonetheless. DEATH STAR is similarly noisey, but has this incredibly heavy beat and embraces dissonance to create some great tension. The track is kind of lyrically sparse and the lyrics that are sung aren't great, and the track ends up being one of the less memorable cuts overall. The track is continued in GOODBYE TO ALL THAT which is much more harmonious despite the dirty beat, mostly thanks to the vocal harmonies. The track is largely carried by it's vocal melodies,
SUGAR marks the beginning of the end of the record. The start of the track is this instrumental with some very screwed up but still pretty guitar work, it provides a nice break from vocals on the record as well as giving Stevens the opportunity to flex his muscles with instrumentals. However, after a few minutes, he turns the track into a pretty standard love song- he repeats the line "come on baby give me some sugar" which gets pretty eye rolling pretty quickly. It might be bearable if he didn't repeat it so much, I actually like it in the chorus, but in the verses it is just annoying. The production accents the vocals really nicely in the track's second half too. The outro is a good end to the track too.
THE ASCENSION is evocative of alot of Stevens' earlier work, and contains alot of biblical imagery, and has alot of lyrics about changes and acceptance, and how Stevens feels totally powerless to change things he sees as a total mess. The track doesn't build to much, but I think that'd probably the point.
The final track on the record is AMERICA and it clocks in at 12 and a half minutes, and feels like Sufjan has ascended above his home country and can see what these higher powers-be it culture or god- have done, and then feeling disconnect when expressing these feelings- "Don’t look at me like I’m acting hysterical". The themes of change from the last track continue with lines like "I am broken, I am beat" and "I am fortune, I am free". The track's production expands into this expansive, enveloping end of record blow out that really needs headphones or a good soundsystem to be experienced properly- the hugeness of the beat and the layered textures are not to be missed. I think I was initially colder on the closer thanks to just listening to the compressed youtube version thru laptop speakers, because on headphones it is wayyyyy better. The last third of the track is just a drone-y sort of soundscape, and you aren't missing a great deal by turning off early.
Overall I liked this record alot. It's certainly alot to digest in one sitting, but man it definitely feels like a journey. There's a few less memorable moments in the second half, but the majority of the tracks are very very good. Check it out!
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