Sufjan Stevens – Javelin

On Javelin, Sufjan Stevens sees himself as a blight on a beautiful world. When loved, his pain is suspended and he transcends, but such mercy is resigned to his past. With oceanic regret, he supplicates the universe for a way forward. 

A deep nihilism informs Javelin’s sound and stories, but Stevens' banjo buoys us from drowning in his longing. With a Beatles sensibility, aching opener Goodbye Evergreen is a cry for help – at its most intense it’s like a violent rain hurtling down on a bed of water lilies. On A Running Start, Stevens’ cadence has the sweet twinkle of a treacly fable, along with a whimsical chorus of backing singers sparkling like fireflies illuminating the dance of anthropomorphised woodland creatures. Will Anybody Ever Love Me? sees Stevens becoming poetically needy, his voice reedy. Genuflecting Ghost finds freedom in facing the horrors ('Now we dance in our catastrophe') and, though his hope is moribund, the eight-and-a-half minute Shit Talk makes one last desperate plea: 'Hold me tightly lest I fall'.

Gracefully distilling a profusion of self-loathing, Javelin is a heartsick high. No one yearns like Sufjan Stevens.

Listen to: Everything That Rises, Genuflecting Ghost, So You Are Tired