Sufjan Stevens - The BQE (2009)

I'm sure a lot of people are searching for it, so here it is but it's not that good. I guess to be fair, I should just say I don't like it. I don't like Sufjan Stevens. I spent a lot of time listening to some of his albums, especially "Illinois" which had some good songs, but then he did too many smug interviews in which his pretentiousness turned me off. The highlight was one where he described "Chicago" as appealing to the lowest common denominator. His obnoxiousness made albums where every other song is a twenty-second burst of orchestral noise or a train whistle, far less enticing. Should I sit for an hour to hear the twenty minutes of exciting folk-pop, or just get it elsewhere, where the music is more focused, and spends less time trying to be art (becoming ever more artistic by that fact alone)?

Now, Stevie really isn't doing anything all too special here. He's heard some adventurous music, and some pretty music, and some Christian music, and he regurgitates it all on his albums. This isn't original, it's sometimes pretty, but it isn't special enough for me to get over the fact that I don't like him and don't want to support his work. I hope the big guy up there is impressed (look straight up hard enough and you'll either see him, or pass out, or both) because I'm not. Some things are more important than credibility, after all.

This album is not terrible, sometimes it's pretty, sometimes the sounds he creates are actually artistically interesting. Maybe if I'd gone to art school, I'd "get it". Good for him, he's done something decent here, but it isn't done so well as to make me forget who wrote it. I don't need another modern-classical avante-electronic album that badly.

Once in a while, there will be albums here I don't like (see Muse "The Resistance"). Sometimes I'm curious about new releases I don't expect to enjoy. Sometimes albums I've been anticipating turn out to be a dissappointment. Sorry for the negativity. LISTEN

Tracks:
1. Prelude On The Esplanade — 2:56
2. Introductory Fanfare For The Hooper Heroes — 1:07
3. Movement I: In The Countenance Of Kings — 5:19
4. Movement II: Sleeping Invader — 4:34
5. Interlude I: Dream Sequence In Subi Circumnavigation — 3:33
6. Movement III: Linear Tableau With Intersecting Suprise — 4:09
7. Movement IV: Traffic Shock — 3:24
8. Movement V: Self-Organizing Emergent Patterns — 3:45
9. Interlude II: Subi Power Waltz — 0:28
10. Interlude III: Invisible Accidents — 0:54
11. Movement VI: Isorhythmic Night Dance With Interchanges — 3:17
12. Movement VII (Finale): The Emperor Of Centrifuge — 3:51
13. Postlude: Critical Mass — 2:59