If you're looking for the Sufjan Stevens you've come to know (and most likely love) through Illinois and Michigan, you will probably only glimpse him during opening track "Futile Devices." The Age of Adz (pronounced "odds") almost entirely abandons its folksier predecessors and trades them for more electronically influenced sounds.
Stylistically, Sufjan has never been one to box himself in, so this genre-bending news shouldn't be so alarming. But, with its eerie transitions and sometimes cacophonous instrumentals, The Age of Adz is a considerably darker album.
Where we might expect intricate metaphors involving well-crafted characters and picturesque settings, we are instead confronted with first-person statements. In "I Walked," Sufjan expresses feelings of personal disconnect amidst electro-pop backgrounds ("At least I deserve the respect of a kiss goodbye"). Title track, "Age of Adz" aurally identifies with the traffic-inspired sequences present on The BQE. "I Want To Be Well" builds slowly and eventually disintegrates into a chorus of "I want to be well" juxtaposed against Sufjan shouting "I'm not fuckin' around!"
He isn't. At all. If The Age of Adz reveals one thing about Sufjan Stevens, it's that he's not afraid to take risks; sacrificing what he already knows will work in favor of artistic exploration.
In fact, that's exactly what the album ends with. Twenty-five minute long "Impossible Soul" includes everything from auto-tuned vocals, harps, digitized noise, a call-and-response section, and finally dissolves into characteristic guitar-picking and sentimental whispers reminiscent of albums' past. In the last few seconds echoes of "Boy, we made such a mess together" swirl the listener back to their present-state.
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Sufjan Stevens – "Futile Devices"
Sufjan Stevens – "I Walked"
Sufjan Stevens – "I Want To Be Well"
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