Despite the fact fellow AGCS writer Jed calls 2005 a ‘fallow year for music’, it signalled the start of the modern British Indie movement with debut albums from Art Brut (Bang Bang Rock & Roll), Bloc Party (Silent Alarm), Kaiser Chiefs (Employment ), Editors (The Back Room), Maximo Park (A Certain Trigger) and Tom Vek (We Have Sound) among others. Whilst some of these albums were better than others (Vek and Maximo stand out for me), it was the small number of albums from across the pond that excited me most.
QOTSA released the truly fantastic Lullabies to Paralyze, and if they hadn’t already been awarded AOTY2002 it’d have made choosing 2005 near impossible. We Are Scientists début was also great (it remains their best work yet); System of a Down’s Mezmerize was a great “Metal” album that as someone that despises the genre I latched onto and still adore today; Panic(!) at the Disco made ‘Emo’ interesting merging classical instruments with electronic to some great pop songs, and Foo Fighters had a decent attempt at a double album.
It was however a certain Sufjan Stevens however that fully delivered the kind of inspiring album that every human being with ears deserves to hear at least one of a year.
Illinois, the second State based album is a 74 minute collection of 22 songs/compositions using Illinois’ people, places and history as its lyrical backdrop. Some of the tracks are short (0:06) and some are long (7:03), but they blend together to make an actual album, something with a clear musical narrative from the beautiful opener of ‘Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL’ through to the last track with vocals and climax ‘The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders’. The track you are most likely to know on Illinois is Chicago, but the only reason this would have been played on the radio is because it is the least interesting, the rest of the album is very experimental especially with harmony, but still ticks the pop credentials. There are some definite Phillip Glass (modern minimalist composer) influences heard through the album, and much of it is semi-atonal. Despite this there are some simple and truly beautiful tracks contained within such as the haunting ‘John Wayne Gacy, Jr.’ and ‘The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!’, making the most Stevens’ falsetto.
I’m not sure how I found Sufjan; it definitely wasn’t through recommendation so I guess it must have been a fortunate accident. But I feel like the years until I found him were somewhat wasted, and delving through his back catalogue and eagerly awaiting new material and the chance to see him live has been a joy. His song writing has changed my song writing and how I listen to music, it’s refreshing for someone in the age of Rock, Indie and all other noisy guitar based music to be composing such intelligent and stimulating music, and with Illinois he played almost all the instruments (and if not playing, scoring) and recorded the whole thing using basic equipment at home. Yet it is one of the grandest albums of the decade. So here is the recommendation I never got; check Sufjan out. Pick an album, and sit through it from start to end. Try and understand the complexity of what’s going on, or just enjoy it for what it is. Illinois is the perfect example of this; despite the heavy research Sufjan did into the state (see Wikipedia for details) and despite the intricateness of the composition, it can just be considered a collection of beautiful pop songs. Now go listen to it.
Greg (In Sydney)
