Sufjan Stevens – The Age Of Adz (2xLP)

After the two successful predecessors MICHIGAN from 2004 (in Germany > 5000) and ILLINOIS from 2005 (> 10.000 sold EH) a real successor is now released (apart from the classical / instrumental album "BQE" from 2009)

The Age of ADZ (pronounced "odds") is bordered by Stevens to the extent that it dispenses with conceptual underpinnings. The songwriter abandons his narrative habits in favour of simpler means of expression, without being hindered or restricted by conceptual constraints. There are only a few spun metaphors or character images, no historical panoramas, no bourgeois gestures, no setting, no framework, no conflict, no resolution, no outcome. Rather, the topics developed here are rather personal, fundamental and by no means historical or polemical: love, sex, death, illness, fear and suicide all play a role in songwriting.

Sufjan Stevens has released nine studio albums since 2000, including Michigan and Illinois (the latter appeared in almost every annual best seller list, Paste magazine even declared it album of the decade); a 5-EP Christmas box set; Enjoy Your Rabbit, an instrumental electronic song cycle based on the animals of the Chinese Zodiac; and The BQE, a film project with musical accompaniment that explores New York's infamous highway between Brooklyn and Queens.