Venues
Events
VideoMusic
Sufjan. Album. New
First full-length since 2005′s Illinois
Photo: Asthmatic Kitty Records
| | More
Too excited. No complete sentences. Sufjan Stevens. New album. October 12. Sex. Disease. Suicide (potential band name?). Press release:
Sufjan Stevens is set to release The Age of Adz, his first ful- length collection of original songs in five years, October 12 on Asthmatic Kitty Records. The album is available for pre-order now until September 25, with pre-orders receiving music digitally two weeks prior to the physical release date. The Age of Adz comes on the heels of Stevens’ All Delighted People EP, available for purchase now from most digital stores, and his 2009 film and musical suite The BQE.
The Age of Adz (pronounced “odds”) differs from Stevens’ previous works in its lack of conceptual underpinnings. The album relinquishes the songwriter’s former story-telling techniques for more basic proclamations unhindered by concepts: there are few narrative conceits or character sketches, no historical panoramas, no civic gestures, no scene, setting, conflict, resolution or denouement. Rather, the themes developed here are neither historical nor polemical, but rather personal and primal: love, sex, death, disease, illness, anxiety and suicide all figure in the songwriting.
The title The Age of Adz is a reference to the apocalyptic art of Royal Robertson (1930-1997), a Louisiana-based sign-maker (and self-proclaimed prophet) who suffered from schizophrenia. Robertson’s work depicts his vivid dreams and visions of space aliens, futuristic automobiles, eccentric monsters and signs of the Last Judgment. Portions of Stevens’ album use Robertson’s work as an idealistic springboard and a selection of Robertson’s drawings (his primary media were poster board, magic marker, and glitter) appear throughout the album art.
