Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension (September 25, 2020) Album • Page 17

svalbard too

 

And Jamie Lenman.

 

It's a stacked day, I've literally got a dozen albums noted lol

 

Pausing a run to say this is incredible so far and some of the early reactions have been confusing to me

 

So far the greatest highlight has been that last minute or so of Tell Me You Love Me. This seriously owns so far.

 

I hope the new Oneohtrix album sounds like gilgamesh

so far my biggest complaint is that bike bell motif - I feel like that’s going to drive me crazy sometimes lol

 

Idles, too

 

this one settled as my favorite

 

Just finished my first listen. I love it. Sounds nothing like Carrie & Lowell which probably will turn some folks off (especially those who disliked Age of Adz) but I think it's pretty fantastic. I will of course need to listen more to get a clearer opinion, but it's great on first listen.

 

The panning at the beginning of Lamentations is so cool

 

First listen done; I like it, but man there’s a lot to unpack here. Need more listens.

 

This is incredible. Haven’t been able to keep away from it.

 

It’s basically what I thought it would be: an impressive, and thoroughly unenjoyable listen. There’s just too much and a lot of it is just so unmelodic and random. This will go down like Age of Adz for me. Electronic sufjan is just not enjoyable to me.

 

Starting now. Just finished Make Me
An Offer, and it’s incredible.

 

Enjoy! I have a feeling you are going to love it.

 

First track was amazing, attempting to get through the rest now...not sure what to expect but if it's in a similar vein then it could end up clicking hard for me

 

This is some good shit

Die Happy was incredible

 

I keep hearing really glitchy melodies on the verge of being unpleasant and then he comes in and somehow matches a beautiful vocal melody with it, theres clearly a ton to take in here but I am certainly not trying to do that here, just have it on in the background and already a lot of parts standing out and it's just sounding like good music I would want to listen to (granted, I am in a weird ass mood so maybe thats why it feels a bit more easy listening than something like this normally would)

Edit: omg the title track

 

First listen through. Very pleased. Some thoughts:

1. That 80 minutes went by much quicker than I expected.

2. It's gonna take a few listens to get my mind around the middle section of the record. Definitely moments that I didn't love on first listen. That said, I did enjoy everything, and I was captivated the whole time.

3. The longer wordless moments on the record (i.e. the beginning of "Sugar") work really well in context. The sprawl becomes part of the record's identity and you just accept it and eventually get lost in it. Nothing struck me as overlong.

4. It reminds me of a sequel to Adz, but somehow both more restrained and more chaotic. The simpler parts are very simple, but the complex parts are more insane.

5. Overall, I feel like I came out of a movie. It has that effect of watching a heavy film with a lot to unpack and just sitting in the theater afterward sort of dazed and mulling it over.

I think this is going to be a record that sneaks up on me. There are going to be songs on here where a week from now I'm thinking, "Dang, how did this not hit me the first time around???"

 

a few songs into this and the closest point of reference honestly feels like "Exploding Whale", which is not something I thought I'd say in 2020 but I'm happy about it cos I adore that song

 

honestly struggled with the midsection here a lot but "Death Star" into "Goodbye to All That" is so clean

 

Enjoying soaking this in right now. Nothing's standing out particularly so far but I don't think it's meant to yet. Perfectly happy with that.

 

Some of these songs sound straight off of Year Zero by NIN, especially Ativan and Ursa Major.

 

The end of Atvian is beautiful.

 

Here's an early demo of the track Lamentations: