Sufjan Steven regains creative spark for songwriting

Sufjan Stevens

All the Delighted People EP

Grade: A-… Sufjan Stevens

All the Delighted People EP

Grade: A-

Rocks Like: A hymn amidst a hurricane

Sufjan Stevens, the indie-folk icon who took us from Michigan to Illinois, unexpectedly released a 60-minute EP in late last month that will surely surprise and entice fans.

Despite his discouraging comments last year to Exlcaim! magazine when he stated, “What’s the point of making music anymore?” Stevens has rediscovered his spark for songwriting. Although he commented that downloading music has made his work “obsolete,” he has released the entire EP for free streaming on bandcamp.com with only a $5 downloading fee.

If you were lucky enough to catch Stevens on his 2009 fall tour, you may recognize the opening title track. It begins with Stevens’ creeping voice and continues to build with an accompanying choir, strings and horns, displaying many of the classical conventions heard in his previous music.

Although Stevens almost never discusses religious beliefs in interviews, his lyrics often contain spiritual themes. Here he alludes to Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence,” singing, “And the people bowed and prayed/ to the neon god they made/ and what difference does it make?”

The gothic piano ballad, “The Owl and The Tanager,” tells a story of a violent love, while “Djohariah” is a full-choired guitar jam about a mother’s struggle.

While almost every song on the EP seems delicately crafted and composed, listeners could probably do without the repeated “classic rock version” of “All Delighted People.” We heard it once, now let’s move on.

Strangely enough, this EP for “delighted people” is remarkably dark and clearly Stevens has abandoned his musical pioneering across all 50 states. But like many great musicians, his sound has continued to grow and evolve into something much deeper and emotional. This EP will probably just be a foreshadowing of what to expect for his next studio release, “The Age of Adz,” this October.