Ma dudes, of course it’s great. It’s Sufjan freaking Stevens, yo! This is only their second proper album since their magnum opus ‘Carrie & Lowell’, which I named best album of 2015 ahead of ‘To Pimp a Butterfly*’ and forever confirmed that I am, in fact, the softest of soft soyboys. But Sufjan’s creativity and genius is far from simply contained to their own albums: they’ve penetrated Necessary Evil with Lowell themselves, with fellow indie softbois Bryce Dessnar, Nico Muhly & James McAllister, and just with shit that didn’t fit on his magnum opus. They had two Necessary Evil entries in 2017 and in 2020. Mate, the Sufjan Stevens Blogging Universe (SSBU) is rich with lore.
(*as low as number 14! You’ll rarely see lists of best albums of all time where it’s listed that low! And I stand by it. Why? Because I’m a free thinker. A philosopher. A leader. And, yeah, also a soft soyboy)
And they almost had two entries on the 2023. The year also saw the 20th anniversary release of ‘Michigan‘, and if you haven’t heard that album, maybe… like… listen to it rather than ‘Javelin’? Like, seriously, it shits all over this album. I’m not one of those dedicated softbois who have followed Sufjan religiously since he was releasing electronic albums based around the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, and…
…an album based around Chinese Zodiac animals? 79 minutes? Called ‘Enjoy Your Rabbit’? Jesus fucking Christ…
What I’m saying is: I didn’t hear the majesty of ‘Michigan’ back in 2003. ‘Boy in da (freaking) Corner‘ was released that year! ‘The Black Album’, anyone? My baby don’t mess around? Because she loves me so? And this I know fo sho? I was 19 years old, in my first year of university, my own place for the first time and surrounded by similarly horny teenagers away from their parents for the first time? You’re coming to me, in the year of my peak libidinousness, and asking me to listen to the softest shit imaginable? Apologies for the language, but Sufjan don’t get no bitches.
Now, twice divorced, disabled, amount of bitches not really any longer my sole driving force, I can appreciate just how wonderful ‘Michigan’ is. There’s part of me that regrets not being plugged into Sufjan 20 years ago. It would have lead to me being an early adopter of Bandcamp. Maybe I could have followed all of their seemingly everlasting Christmas releases. I could have been at the front of those gigs, one of those frail white boys in glasses holding their hearts as I choked back tears singing along to Casimir Pulaski Day. “I remember, at Michael’s house/In the living room when you kissed my neck/And I almost touched your blouse”… Jesus Christ though, I’m not sure I was ever that much of a virgin. Like, eight year old me would listen to that and go “Shitting hell, lad, get some fanny, yeah?” while stubbing out a cigar.
And the slight (miniscule! Fucking barely recognisable!) problem with ‘Javelin’ – and, I feel I must stress, ‘Javelin’ is an incredible album – is that it sees Sufjan regressing to the styles of music that originally got them over with the fanbase. After the striking and compelling ‘The Ascension’ was a (borderline unsuccessful) step into more expansive and darker electronica. It was a notable and extremely respectable attempt to update their sound and experiment with new ways of communicating their classic ‘snowflake whinge’ lyrical template. And at the end of the time, at judgement day, I contend that Video Game will be accepted as amongst their greatest ever songs.
‘Javelin’ is… more of that ‘Michigan’ hustle. It’s a brilliant album (did I mention that?), but to release it in the same year as they bring attention to their earlier successes doing essentially the same shit but far better was a bold move that end up hurting ‘Javelin’. Listen, we all love the libtard banjo plucking, but going back to tender the same field that you have already perfected is always a risk, and ‘Javelin suffers because of it. The reason I didn’t include ‘Michigan’ on NE2023 was because it would have ranked far higher, and it would have felt like I was making a statement. I don’t want to make statements! Imagine if I angered the Sufjan Stevens fanbase! They would…! they would…! Ah, who are we kidding? Sufjan’s fans wouldn’t even be able to arrange a mob, their allergies would start playing up and there’s no coffee shop near my house that’d be able to accommodate all of their allergies. I think we’d be alright. But they’d be upset! And Sufjan fand get very upset very easily! Why would I do that?? That would just be cruel!
But, fuck, Sufjan is really sick right now, and to release an album as brilliant as this while suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome is a freaking achievement in itself. Get well soon, Stevens.
I might start going through all of their albums like I’m doing with Prince… Tell me why I shouldn’t do that…
2021 #44, 2020 #34, 2020 #68 (with Lowel Brams), 2017 #38, 2017 #31 (with Bryce Dessnar, Nico Muhly & James McAllister), 2015 #1!
(And listen to ‘Michigan’ as well. That album fucks)
Necessary Evil 
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