Length 65:58 | Release date 1 July 2003 | |
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Released July 1, 2003 (2003-07-01) Recorded 2003 in multiple locations Similar Sufjan Stevens albums, Indie folk albums, Other albums |
Sufjan stevens michigan full album
Michigan (styled Sufjan Stevens Presents... Greetings from Michigan, the Great Lake State on the cover) is a concept album by American indie folk songwriter Sufjan Stevens, released on July 1, 2003 on Sounds Familyre, Asthmatic Kitty and Secretly Canadian in the US, and on Rough Trade in Europe. It is Stevens' third studio album and features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Michigan.
Contents
- Sufjan stevens michigan full album
- Sufjan stevens flint for the unemployed and underpaid
- Recording and production
- Album art
- Critical reception
- Legacy
- Track listing
- Personnel
- Songs
- References
The album is the first in Stevens' fifty states project, a planned series of fifty albums to encompass all fifty U.S. states. Stevens only released two state albums before admitting the project was a "promotional gimmick".
Sufjan stevens flint for the unemployed and underpaid
Recording and production
The album was recorded and produced entirely by Stevens, using relatively cheap equipment for a market release. All of the tracks were recorded using 2 Shure SM57s and an AKG C1000, running through a Roland VS880EX, at a sampling rate of 32 khz (lower than the rates typically used in recording). Michigan was produced in Pro Tools, which Stevens has also used for his following albums.
The instrumentation was recorded in various locations: a home in Petoskey, Michigan; Buxton School in Williamstown, Massachusetts; the N. J. Rec. Room in Clarksboro, New Jersey; and throughout Brooklyn, including Stevens' apartment and those of his friends and St. Paul's Church.
Album art
Album art features original hand-paintings by Martha Stewart Living crafts editor Laura Normandin.
The two-disc vinyl edition of Michigan contains an inscription within the run-off groove of each LP side:
Critical reception
Critical reception of Michigan was favorable. Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork Media described the album as "a beautiful, sprawling homage" to the state, noting its "lush production", but criticizing the excessive length of some of the album's tracks.
Legacy
Upon the album's tenth anniversary, Stereogum's Chris DeVille stated: "[Stevens's] widescreen love letter to his home state was such a momentous leap forward that a decade later he still hasn’t surpassed it — not with the stark spiritual meditation Seven Swans, not with the brilliant but cartoonishly grandiose Illinois, and not with the striking digital freakout The Age Of Adz. Sufjan has produced a wealth of fascinating, deeply affecting (and sometimes deeply affected) music over the years, but none of it beats the record that literally and figuratively put him on the map. [...] Nowadays, aggressive guitar bands like Coliseum are considered punk or metal because indie rock is the kind of genre where neoclassical whiz kid Nico Muhly contributes string arrangements to seemingly every major record, where Régine Chassagne passionately rocks the accordion, where Bon Iver channels Richard Marx unironically. Michigan’s flurry of glockenspiels, oboes, trombones, and, yes, banjos had a lot to do with that."
Track listing
All tracks written by Sufjan Stevens and published by New Jerusalem Music, ASCAP.
- "Marching Band" – 3:41
- "Pickerel Lake" – 3:11
- "Niagara Falls" – 2:22
- "Presidents and Magistrates" – 4:16
- "Wolverine" – 2:10
The vinyl release also includes alternate arrangements of "Vito's Ordination Song" and "Romulus".
The European re-release of the album in 2004 also contains the bonus tracks "Marching Band" and "Pickerel Lake".
The song "Redford" was the inspiration for the name of the protagonist Redford Stephens of The Roots 2011 album Undun, who used the song as the opening to a four-part instrumental movement at the end of the album.
Personnel
Songs
1Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid)3:44
2All Good Naysayers - Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!4:33
3For the Widows in Paradise - For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti3:57