-Alexa Lempel
It’s hard to explain why, but I love to see artists completely junk the styles that made them famous and veer off in some wild unexpected direction. I guess it must be that I admire their willingness to risk their reputations, for the sake artistic integrity, when turning out “more of the same” held the promise of near guaranteed success…. But reasons aside, I found one such stylistic about-face to love last week when I picked up Sufjan Stevens’ new album The Age of Adz.
Stevens, whose usual wares involve much sensitive poetical singing and quiet banjo melodies, has here released an altogether highly aggressive, synth-laden beast of an album, with one 25 minute track consisting mostly of blaring sirens (which I suppose is to be expected from a man who, after releasing Michigan and Illinois, once planned to write a full length album for each of America’s fifty states). I’m a huge fan of Stevens’ older work, but this departure, explained by Stevens as the result of being “sick of [his own] voice and…sick of the strummy-strum acoustic guitar song and… sick of [his] lyrical approach” is a definite triumph. Take a listen below to compare some of Sufjan’s old stuff with The Age of Adz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnycQL6UTow
After listening to both of his styles, I personally have a strong preference for his older work. I think that it may be important for him as an artist to try to experiment with different identities, but he is relatively much better at his original acoustic style that got him recognized as an artist in the first place.
I believe that in general when purely acoustic musicians try to create a more electric style, they downgrade their music’s quality. Another example of this is Jack Johnson. I love almost all of Jack Johnson’s old acoustic songs. However, when he attempted to make a new identity with electric guitar, his music worsened too.
It’s not that I don’t like electric guitar; I love it. I simply don’t think that either Stevens or Jackson have been as proficient in their electric music as in their acoustic music. That’s just my opinion.
This is a common thread for many artists. It is often the case that there is a special simplicity and directness to the first music that makes the initial impression. Then the challenge is to extend that style without directly repeating it. Sometimes the second album is the hardest one to do. The record company can also bring significant pressure to “repeat” the original success with “more of the same.” Many artists resist this, but not all do. Stevens seems to have gone to an extreme to avoid anything like his original music, thought the layered effects of each have similarities in the abstract. Interesting to see that this struggle continues with new artists! (Beethoven suffered under similar criticism, especially with his late period music.)