There have been a ton of reviews of Sufjan Stevens' new album, [Illinois], floating around lately. I hadn’t heard any of his music, and after having one friend say “eh… not getting into it that much”, I had pretty much decided that it was going to go on my ignore list. But then three nights in a row, listening to my local NPR station whilst driving my car, I heard some rather interesting tunes… which, when the announcer came back to credit them, were all from the aforementioned Mr. Stevens album.

My interest thus piqued, I did a little internet research and found that Amazon has two free tracks you can download. Then I found this post on Richard’s blog which pointed me towards several more downloads. I’ve downloaded 6 tracks so far (which is only about 25% of the album…) and I’m really impressed. The song names are goofy (“The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You’re Going To Have To Leave Now, Or, ‘I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'" is just one example), the subject matter is at times bizzare (“John Wayne Gacy, Jr."), but the end result is captivating. The layered instrumentation, the quirky rhythms (the first track is in a neat 5/4 time), Sufjan’s mellow vocals, they all serve to create a total package that’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard before… but engrossing at the same time.

I think I’m going to have to go out and buy this album. I looked for it at BestBuy the other night and it was nowhere to be found. Maybe Barnes & Noble will have it; it’s on sale on their website, maybe it’ll be on sale in the store, too. I have a car trip planned to Wisconsin for this weekend; it would be fun to add Illinois to the journey.