brianglidewell.com

1. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

The second in Sufjan’s unlikely-to-be-completed 50 states project was a doozy.  A mind-blowing collection of songs that ranged from the personal (“Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!” “Chicago”) to the historical (“John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” “Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois”) to the fictional (“They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!”), from rock (“The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts”) to folk (“Casimir Pulaski Day”) to his trademark symphonic swells (” “A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze”), Sufjan amazed at every corner.  Despite its near-double-disc length, the album never drags.  Even the interludes don’t seem like filler.  The melodies are terrific, the instrumentation innovative, and the lyrics emotionally affective.  The album is clearly a WORK, as in massive amounts of effort went into it.  Clearly Sufjan is a perfectionist, as perfection is what this album achieved.