Sufjan rocks. No, seriously.
Ummm, yeah…The link below is the second song from Sufjan Stevens’s new album, The Age of Adz. You’re welcome.
http://www.npr.org/v2/?i=130049247&m=130076094&t=audio
That’s called a comeback, kids. I’m sure many will say that Sufjan has forsaken the style that made him such an Indie darling with Come On! Feel the Illinoise, the album that made me into a fan. But really, as this phenomenal track shows, he hasn’t changed anything about his compositional style, only the language with which he decided to express that style. Listening to the last 2 minutes of “Too Much,” I can’t help but think of a complex composition like the title track from Illinoise, and the musical apex of that song as it transitions from the first part (in 5/4) into the second (in 4/4), heard below right around 2:15
A quote from Schoenberg, a man who certainly knew a thing or two about people reacting to new musical expressions, seems a good way to answer those who will inevitably accuse Sufjan of compromising his art:
I have not discontinued composing in the same style and in the same way as at the very beginning. The difference is only that I do it better now than before; it is more concentrated, more mature.
Smooth Atonal Sound 