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{{
[[File:Sufjan_Stevens.jpg|
{{quote|''"SUFJAN STEVENS plays the following instruments: acoustic guitar, piano, wurlitzer, electric bass, drum kit, electric guitar, oboe, Miriam's alto saxophone, Summin's flute, Daniel's banjo and/or Matt's banjo (depending on which one was in tune), Shara's glockenspiel, Laura's rickety accordion, a rented vibraphone, various recorders (Sufjan owns the tenor, soprano, and sopranino, but he borrowed Monique's alto), a Casiotone MT-70, sleigh bells, shakers, tambourine, triangle, and a Baldwin electric church organ. Oh Lord, help us!"'' |From the ''Illinois'' liner notes}}
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Sufjan Stevens is a multi-instrumentalist and independent musician (born and raised in Michigan, now based in New York) beholden to no genre. He’s most famous for his albums about the states of Michigan and Illinois--featuring a mix of [[Folk Music]], [[Baroque Pop]], and [[Post Rock]]--and for claiming that he planned to release similar albums for the other 48 states. However, he’s also released albums of straight folk music (''Seven Swans''), electronica (''Enjoy Your Rabbit''), and orchestral music (''The B.Q.E.''); and the genre of his most recent album, ''The Age of Adz'', could perhaps be described as “all of the above”.
[[Sufjan Stevens
His musical collaborators include [[Danielson
'''Official Releases:'''
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* ''All Delighted People EP'' (2010)
* ''The Age of Adz'' (2010)
* ''Planetarium'' (2017), with [[Bryce Dessner]], [[Nico Muhly]], and James [[McAlister]]
* ''The Decalogue'' (2019), with [[Timo Andres]]
* ''Aporia'' (2020), with [[Lowell Brams]]
* ''Carrie & Lowell (2015)
* ''The Ascension (2020)
By the way, Snow Patrol got his first name wrong. It's pronounced Soof-yahn.
----
{{creatortropes}}
* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: ''His entire family''. See below.
* [[Bolero Effect]]:
** "The BQE, Mvt. III: Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise" is all buildup, and the crescendo only comes in "Mvt. IV: Traffic Shock".
** "Djohariah" builds up to a crescendo twice, before ending as a quiet acoustic song.
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* [[Epic Instrumental Opener]]: "They Are Night Zombies..." among others.
* [[Epic Rocking]]: Many songs over six minutes long; so far the longest is <s>"Year of the Horse" at 14 minutes</s> <s>"Djohariah" at 17 minutes</s> "Impossible Soul" at 25 minutes. ''Seven Swans'' and ''The B.Q.E.'' are the only albums to run for less than an hour. ''All Delighted People'', supposedly an EP, clocks in at '''59 minutes'''.
* [[Excited Show Title!]]: ''A Sun Came!'', ''Come On, Feel the Illinoise!'', and many individual songs.
** The most excessive one is ''They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!''
* [[Fading Into the Next Song]]: Used all over the place.
* [[Ghost Town]]: "They Are Night Zombies..." references numerous Illinois ghost towns.
* [[In Name Only]]: ''All Delighted People '''[[Blatant Lies|EP]]'''''.
* [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition]]: The reissue of ''A Sun Came''; ''Songs for Christmas''.
* [[Listing Cities]]: "The 50 States", a live-show-exclusive song.
* [[Long Title]]: Some are longer than the songs they're attached to.
** Such as "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!'". It's a two minute long instrumental.
* [[Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly]]: People often refer to Sufjan as folk or "indie folk", presumably either because (a) they think his straightforward folk songs are his best material, or (b) they'd rather not deal with the headache of figuring out what genre he really fits into.
* [[New Sound Album]]: First, ''Michigan'', which synthesized Sufjan's earlier influences into Baroque-folky goodness. Now, ''The Age Of Adz'', which transmutes the ''Illinois'' and ''B.Q.E.'' sound into--in the words of the official site--"an explicit pop-song extravaganza" with "a few danceable moments."
* [[Noodle Implements]]: The ''Illinois''<ref>the vinyl version, specifically; the name on the CD version omits everything after "Predicament"</ref> track "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."
* [[Overly Narrow Superlative]]: The press release for ''Songs for Christmas'' called it, "The stocking stuffer of the century! Which isn't saying much, considering the century is still so young!"
* [[Perspective Flip]]: The most common interpretation of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is that it's from the perspective of the villain of [[Flannery O
* [[Raised
* [[Reconstruction]]: After dismissing Christmas as a social construct, and Christmas music as emotionally manipulative garbage, Sufjan attempted with ''Songs for Christmas'' to record something that captured "that creepy Christmas feeling".
* [[Repurposed Pop Song]]: "Chicago" gets a lot of play: it used in the ''[[Little Miss Sunshine]]'' trailers and several TV shows in quick succession.
* [[Saving Christmas]]: Parodied in the comic included in the ''Songs for Christmas'' box set.
* [[Sesquipedalian Smith]]: Sufjan himself. And he has a brother named Marzuki Stevens and a sister named Djohariah Stevens.
* [[Self
* [[Shown Their Work]]: ''Illinois'' and ''The Avalanche'' are dense with allusions to geography and local history.
* [[Shout
** He uses lyrics from [[Simon and Garfunkel|The Sounds of Silence]] on the title track of ''All Delighted People''.
* [[Studio Chatter]]: Several folkier songs begin with Sufjan counting off the time. And his cover of "I Saw Three Ships" ends with someone saying "I played terrible."
* [[Uncommon Time]]: Quite common in Sufjan's world. Too many examples to name, but "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders" deserves a special mention.
* [[Wasted Song]]: Two hidden songs show up as [[The Stinger]] in ''The BQE'' film: "The Sleeping Red Wolves" and an untitled noise-music piece. Neither are included on the soundtrack album.
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''[[The Stinger|...and I shake the dirt out]] [[Long Title|of my sandals as I run.]]''
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Sufjan Stevens]]
[[Category:Musicians]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Musicians of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Musicians of the 2020s]]
[[Category:Music]]
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