Only based on his Christmas music but I can see myself listening to Illinois some time soon.

it doesnt get any better than Seven Swans

i picked up Illinois on vinyl the other day, i forgot how much i loved that album.

I really hope he does more in this direction. If he works this kinda song into his albums more, he's going to blow some minds.

soof-yan.

Really should have an umlaut or something, I guess.

I'll still call him Surf-Jan. In my head, because no one ever talks about him in real life.

He is but an internet phenomena that only exists in our imaginations.

Haha no shit. A while ago my roommate was trying to tell me about some guy named "Soofyan" or whatever and I was all "oh yeah I've never heard of him," and he goes, "yeah his one album called Illinoise is good..." and I was all "OH YOU MEAN SUFF-JAN. Ok"

All in all the dude is pretty inconsequential, though.

I can't always dig him. I LOVE his somber stuff--The Seer's Tower, Saul Bellow, The Upper Peninsula, Flint--but his upbeat, whimsical stuff gets old pretty fast (see: the black hawk war, chicago). I think the problem with his upbeat stuff is that it's all upbeat: there's no musical or lyrical conflict in the songs at all. They're just consistently upbeat without any minor chords or any hints of a darker side, and after a few songs that gets old. I want to check out Seven Swans because I hear it's his most somber album. All in all though, great songwriter and if he could ever put out an album that wasn't too long and had a good balance of upbeat and somber, it would kill. He's already in my top ten last.fm artists but I still don't think he has a good album.

Check out "The Mistress Witch from McClure (Or, the Mind that Knows Itself)". It's his most beautiful song.

chicago has plenty of down parts the break at 3 minutes. also minor chords does not mean sad. i think the thing you're hearing but not representing a lot of these tunes are one chord progression that build and change throughout the song in terms of arrangement but not necessarily the chords. he definitely has a few good albums, i don't know which ones you have, but i don't see a lot of bands making records that blow me away, while sufjan does.

also check out that video i posted, that song is upbeat and is full of conflict.

Yeah, that seems like what I'm getting at. Some of his songs, especially his more upbeat material, just sounds flat. I have Illinois, Michigan, The Avalanche, and the Christmas albums. Don't get me wrong, I love his stuff, but some of his songs blow me away (A la predatory wasps, mistress witch, etc.) and other stuff is just mreh.

never listened to the guy

your definitely missing out

i downloaded a bunch of his stuff, i thought it was unlistenable. i would still give his xmas album a try, i guess.

Oh man, if you hated his other stuff, wait until you hear the Christmas album.

A couple years ago I used to listen to John Wayne Gacy Jr like three or four times a day for months

I just got Seven Swans and I think it's his best work. "To be Alone With You" and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" are incredible.

Creepy.