THE ASCENSION

Spike Sidor

6 years ago

SUFJAN STEVENS

2020 ELECTROPOP

The Ascension is the eighth studio album by singer-songwriter extraordinaire Sufjan Stevens. Anyone who has an interest in modern popular music is likely very familiar with Steven’s music. From acoustic tear jerkers to grand indie tinged baroque pop to symphonic electronic experimentation, Stevens has a wide stylistic reach. On this release he is harkening back to his 2010 album, The Age of Adz, or even Enjoy Your Rabbit, with heavy electro but this time with more straight forward pop structures. His recent ambient releases feel like they have quite a bit of influence on this album as well. The Ascension comes in at a mammoth runtime of an hour and twenty minutes, which does not do this album any favors, the back to back to back wallpaper of one simplistic hook driven electropop after another, and Sufjan’s delivery consisting of nearly only of sorrowful whispering gives for a boring and repetitive experience. There is an incredible album buried inside The Ascension, but that’s just it, you have to work your way through several inches of tongue numbing candy coating to get to the delicious reward.

It opens with Make Me An Offer I Cannot Refuse, a mid paced moody track with increasing intensity. Addictive percussion and beautifully layered vocals, from watery echoes to angelic undertones, when combined with an ear worm hook and thoughtful verses make for a terrific start. The next track, Run Away From Me, is a gorgeous slow burner. A steady beat and the combination of weeping synths compliment another great hook delivered in the usual fashion to fantastic effect. Video Games is where Sufjan starts to get a bit lost. His vocals are a bit more upfront and the repetition of the “I don’t wanna” lyrics are simultaneously uninteresting in their meaning and grating in its constant annoyance. Lamentations picks things back up with stuttering percussion and some samples or synthetic vocals that add much needed texture to the sonic landscape of the song. Unfortunately, the Sufjan’s are even quieter than usual and covered in watery effects that make them drown in the production with the lyrics being difficult to discern, it’s an okay song.

Tell Me You Love Me is another album highlight. Plodding keys and heartbroken lyrics build to a brilliant burst on the chorus with backing and layered vocals combining with the instrumentation. The peak is triumphant but if this album has a theme its soaring highs and low valleys. Die Happy is a thoroughly average instrumental with a singular repetitive line that is easily forgotten but is followed up by what is likely my favorite song of the album. Ativan is fantastic front to back. Great lyrics about the need for drugs in this modern age and being overly medicated as a result with a hook that goes off hard and sticks with you. Pulsing percussion kicks off the track and things are mostly familiar, but after the first chorus the pace heightens and explodes with super cool synthetic vocals and syncopated synth notes. This album needs more of this desperately, after this song the listing falls off a cliff that it does not recover from. From Ursa Major to Sugar the tracks range from mediocre and forgettable to outright bad and with the length of this section of the album being at approximately twenty eight minutes it’s practically a full length album on its own and by the time it’s over I wanted to tap out before the last two tracks came around, which is a terrible shame.

Ursa Major and Landslide are fine but they feel like déjà vu; we’ve been on these sounds, we’ve been on these lyrical themes, we’ve encountered these structures earlier, and most importantly done better. The next track Gilgamesh is confusing, the trippy percussion and glitchy scratchy feedback noises only begin to describe the obnoxiousness of this track. To top it off Sufjan delivers unpleasant unintelligible yelps deep in the mix, it’s a bizarre choice that serves the sour topping to this disgusting dish. Sugar is downright boring, a middle of the road instrumental with a below average hook. It’s Sufjan punching below his weight in all aspects musically. The worst part is the length, at nearly eight minutes it is the death knell for my listening fatigue. However, the last two songs turn the quality around dramatically. The title track is a slow and beautiful electronic ballad. Sufjan introspects on his past naivety and foolishness, he is jaded and drained of all hope; it is painful and glorious. Any part of this track can be quoted for its beauty but I partially love this bridge.

And to everything, there is no meaning, a season of pain and hopelessness
I shouldn’t have looked for revelation, I should have resigned myself to this
I thought I could change the world around me, I thought I could change the world for best
I thought I was called in convocation, I thought I was sanctified and blessed

The closer, America, is another bleak blow to the gut, gorgeous but minimal synths and percussion guide Sufjan to lament the state of modern day America, as usual religious references are abound, he is suggesting God has abandoned America or worse yet, is willfully destroying it or alternatively he could be saying that America has done these things to itself and that he has lost faith not in God but in America’s institutions and people. Regardless, it’s deeply moving. Sufjan even comes forth with optimism on poetic lines like this

I have choked on the waters, I abated the flood
I am broken, I am beat
But I will find my way like a Judas in heat
I am fortune, I am free
I’m like a fever of light in the land of opportunity

I’ve thrown heaps of hefty praise at many of the tracks here and plenty of criticism at others. The Ascension is a mixed bag and is very bloated. It feels as though nothing was left on the cutting room floor, like a missed opportunity for what could have been a shining revelation and one of the best of 2020 if only the lowlights were subtracted for its length. Certainly the best tracks deserve attention and I would say listen to albums just to experience them but as a complete piece it’s hard to love, or even enjoy.

5-6/10

THE ASCENSION

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