All Delighted People EP

"You little boy, you little boy..."

Boom, boom, boom with these reviews, eh?  I'm pretty excited about it, I have to say.  I got another two albums today, so at this rate I should have at most about four reviews a week from the radio station.  Let's just hope I can find enough time to review all of them.  I've been listening to another album outside of what KVCU has given me, so I'm going to try and squeeze that in somewhere as well.  The album I'm about to review, however, is something I got really excited about once I got my hands on it: "All Delighted People EP" ("ADP") by Sufjan Stevens.  

Now, I never really got into Sufjan Stevens, but I do have his highly acclaimed "Illinoise" (2005) album.  That being said, I'm familiar with his style and the orchestral magnitude he can have at times, something that also rubbed me the right way.  "ADP" is no different from the feeling I got from "Illinoise;" it may be significantly shorter in terms of its track list, but Stevens has finally given his listeners what they've wanted.  Not since 2005 has Stevens released a song-based full length album.  In 2006, Stevens released "The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinoise Album" which, as can be discerned from the title, was just a bunch of extras that weren't on "Illinoise."  In 2007, he released "Songs for Christmas" which was a compilation of Christmas songs Stevens had written from 2001-2006; a new album, but not really, you know?  Christmas albums don't count.  In 2009, he released "The BQE" which was just recordings of his live shows, so, still, nothing new.  Finally, come 2010, Stevens is releasing not only "ADP," but is also releasing "The Age of Adz" on October 12th of this year, which will be an LP.

While "ADP" isn't officially his first full length song-based album in five years, it shouldn't be over looked by listeners.  Stevens focuses the album around two different compositions of the song "All Delighted People," one that is heavily orchestral and one that is a classical rock version.  Each song, while exactly the same lyrically, has a vastly different feel from the other.  The orchestral version has an epic grandiosity to it when the strings section backs up Stevens' vocals; the classical rock version, with the help of horns, drums, and a guitar backing up Stevens, on the other hand feels a bit more down to earth. 

Outside of those two complimentary songs, the overall feeling of the album is wrought with emotion, especially in "The Owl And The Tanager," which is my personal favorite on the album.  What's interesting about this song is that it's a reworked version of "Barn Owl, Night Killer," a song Stevens typically only plays at concerts.  Stevens' vocals have a sort of weightlessness to them as he sings about death and hardship on top of a steady guitar line.  The trickling of the piano elevates the weightlessness of Stevens' vocals and heighten the idea of despair in the song.

Overall, Sufjan Stevens really delivers with "ADP" and listeners can only expect more great stuff upon the arrival of "The Age of Adz."  By finally giving his fans what they've been waiting for for over five years, Stevens clearly has a recipe for success with "ADP" already skyrocketing up to #27 on Billboard's charts and already getting relatively good reviews across various sites.  While it isn't a full LP, if "The Age of Adz" is made up of the same sort of stuff that "All Delighted People EP" is, there's no reason listeners should fret.  Let's just hope it's not another five years of creative crisis before his next release.  Take a listen here.