Release Date: October 12th, 2010
Genre: Indie folk, Art rock, Electronica
Label: Asthmatic Kitty
PureVolume: http://www.purevolume.com/sufjanstevens
 

After releasing a few albums, most bands or artists would generally feel the need to develop or completely redefine their sound altogether. Whether it be through the avenues of chamber rock, electronic music, acoustic, harder/lighter moods, or the countless other possibilities, there are many ways for artists to redefine themselves while maintaining what makes them great. This brings to mind bands like Radiohead, with their huge change in both their approach to writing music and the product at the end, they still manage to amaze critics and consumers alike with their releases, most recently Hail To The Thief.  The Age Of Adz has actually been garnering a lot of comparisons to Radiohead’s Kid A over the past few days, and when Sufjan released the single “I Walked” this served as both a confirmation of that comparison, but also a signal of the overall feeling a get from the album; big and powerful.

Make no mistake, The Age Of Adz is big. Sufjan has spared no expense on the impact of the punchy choruses, the length of the songs themselves, and the layering applied to all tracks in terms of both instrumentation, and the electronic flourishes, bleeps, and bloops abound during the album’s length. Those of you who really enjoyed the orchestral nature of Sufjan’s previous endeavors such as BQE and Come On, Feel The Illinoise, can also find something to appreciate here too. There’s still plenty of brass, piano and strings, but you have to be able to enjoy the old with the new. And there’s a hell of a lot of new. Possibly too much.

One of the things I enjoyed particularly on Illinoise was the usually quick, splashy, wonderfully recorded drums. On The Age Of Adz, to accommodate his electronic influence, Sufjan makes a massive leap from that traditional acoustic drumming to some very compressed, even claustrophobic beats. For some reason I get a feeling that they’re somewhat similar to the kind of beats you’d find on a Ratatat record, but nowhere near as clean, and definitely more layered. They contribute a massive amount to the electronic mood simply through the rhythm they create, but it’s hard to decide, personally, whether I like this or not. The beats themselves are loud, messy, sputtering, and even when mixed with Sufjan’s vocals, choir voices, and other synths on many of the tracks, I’m not really sure whether it’s working. It feels as though the beats are getting too much attention over other instruments in a song, taking up all the space. Not allowing strings to soar or horns to blare as they should, leaving a lot of songs with a really one dimensional feeling.

There’s a general awkwardness in a lot of the tracks, and against the traditional instrumentation, personally, I sometimes get to the point where I wish they weren’t there so the song could have a better flow. This is shown well in the two closing tracks of the album “I Want To Be Well” and “Impossible Soul”, the second of those being a massive twenty-five minute morphing journey of both Sufjan’s classic styles and his new influences, and here, above all else, they meld perfectly. The song is fun as hell, and definitely one of my favorites on the record. It also ends with this nice little acoustic piece, which is something of a hidden treasure on the record.This is somewhat made up for by the little interludes of classic Sufjan, found in songs like the opening track “Futile Devices” and later on, “Bad Communication”. “Futile Devices” is effectively an entirely acoustic song, some light guitar holding the song together, complimented by some piano sprinkled throughout. Its short though, and Sufjan never seems to take a chance at a change in pace or tone, and it quietly rolls along, suddenly ending, with a bit of disappointing effect. “Bad Communication” is a slow, messy, even confusing song with horns, harps, choir voices, synth surges and plenty of the aforementioned beeps and bloops. It’s nowhere near as conservative as “Futile Devices” but it certainly pays more attention to its vocal melodies than any kind of beat or rhythm.

Sufjan’s vocals have always been delivered in this kind of whispering, falsetto tone, as though he’s a young boy performing for a massive crowd of people, frightened, but courageous. On The Age Of Adz he really breaks out of this mould, yelling and forcing his voice in places, but still not losing the touch of quiet that makes his vocal style so interesting. There’s also a huge influence of auto-tune. Although here I feel as though it’s used to complement the music and the beats more than it is to correct Sufjan’s voice, much like what we heard with “California English” on Vampire Weekend’s Contra.

Overall, if you’re going to really going to give this record a go, you should forget what you thought you knew about Sufjan Stevens. He’s taken a huge leap away from his more structured chamber rock style and stepped into a whole new age of…well, Adz. Whatever that is.

I really can’t tell you if you’re going to like this album or not, but certainly give it a try. It can be rewarding in many ways. If you’ve got a hunger for experimental beats, look no further, and dive straight in. But if you’re looking for more chamber rock, it would be best to test the waters before you jump.