One Delighted Person

Most all of you know that music plays a very big part of my life.  And most of you know that for the last 5 or 6 years my favorite musician has been Sufjan Stevens.  I love his insatiable creativity, his unorthodox approach to composing music, and his ability to poignantly capture scenes and feelings through his writing.  Somehow he manages to bring together a seemingly random grouping of instruments, styles, and subjects and yet keep his music from feeling gimmicky or overly contrived (who else could pull off a marching band rock ballad?).  It never seems like he's trying to be weird just to be weird.  Rather his music comes across as fully realized expressions of an idea; as if the story or feeling that he is communicating through his music, simply couldn't possibly be expressed in any other way.

Suffice it to say, I love his music.

But being a Sufjan Stevens fan hasn't been easy.  Especially over the last several years.  After he first burst onto the music scene in 2000, Sufjan went through a period of heightened productivity.  In the space of a few years he put out 7 albums including, among others, two albums dedicated to the states of Illinois and Michigan, an electronic album featuring songs written for each year of the Chinese zodiac, and a five-disc set of Christmas music.  And then all of a sudden he disappeared.  He stopped touring, he stopped putting out music.  He busied himself producing other bands albums as well as creating a commissioned multimedia project about the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and handed out occasional quotes about being "tired of hearing my own voice" or declaring "what's the point of making music anymore?"  It seemed like all Sufjan fans (Su-fans?) were just going to have to be happy with the collection of music he had already handed down.

However, a month ago some rumblings started to surface that Sufjan was starting to get past his "creative crisis."  Then two weeks ago it was announced that he was going to go on a nation-wide tour (I was the first person in Denver to get tickets).  And finally, today he released an EP of new music titled "All Delighted People."

Sufjan is back, and I couldn't be more delighted.  I can't wait to see where he goes from here.