There’s always that one album. An album you listen to in the background that never grasps your attention, yet always appears in your playlist. You don’t actually feel like playing it, but all the reviews say it’s good, and you might as well because you guess the second track has a pretty nice melody. Or it had some sort of “cool” sad backstory and it gives a lot of perpective, or something, or another. You know all the stuff you’d tell yourself so as to actually “enjoy” the album.
Sufjan Steven’s Carrie and Lowell is that album. This is an album of problems. These persist in a background away from any conscious attention, but make the experience a heavily boring and painful album to listen to, with a few sparks of genius sprinkled lightly in, but not enough to save it. From the weak lyricism to the tracks that never feel like they’re going anywhere, to the blatant unneeded fake poeticism that would fit much better on a middle schooler’s 6th grade poetry quiz. It questions whether or not Sufjan even cares about his quarrel.
Muted Beginnings
The LP starts off weak with a track that exposes every flaw to be found within the first minute. Sufjan plays with his words without care, his thoughts roll off his tongue into a stream of conscious mess that begs you to stop listening. Sufjan doesn’t seem to really know what he’s talking about, and unwillingly lets the truth pass his lips. To some this may be haunting, but to me, and probably plenty of others, it proves that Sufjan doesn’t really care about his music. The instrumentation here is bland, save the little drone at the end, nothing feels like it’s going anywhere, and it struggles to try and tell its story. It sounds like it was made up on the spot where someone had just woke up. That isn’t to say the guitar is played badly, just to say that it’s uncreative and doesn’t really go anywhere.
Don’t get me wrong however, Sufjan shows some brilliance on some of the tracks, seen a bit more notably on the second half… Particularly with the song john my beloved… On this track, Stevens uses what could either be: a mode on a keyboard that mimicks the sound of a xylophone, or an actual xylophone. That isn’t the point however. The effect is comforting, sounding like every single note is wrapped in a soft velvet, perfectly crescendoing while keeping the softness in prime. Sufjan also actually comes off as somewhat intelligent as a songwriter. His words careen around each note, shy and introverted is his voice. Sufjan on this track sounds like he’s walking home on a particularly rainy day, his feelings sounding real for once. As much as I might criticize the instrumentation on other tracks, there’s really nothing to criticize here.
Past Experiences
There are other examples of Good tracks. The title track Carrie and Lowell has a kind of beautiful subtlety. With guitar “pricks” that, envelop the ears, and the reversed drone that appears halfway through the song. It takes the listener into a certain place. Maybe a feeling of nostalgia, or maybe glee or humbleness… Whatever it is it’s a very strong feeling. Another example of a good track is “No Shade in the Shadow of The Cross” where it achieves a certain type of glee from sadness. This track conveys an image in me particularly… A man walks through a graveyard and visits what could very well be a friend’s grave. Maybe they died in a sudden accident or maybe they died in another way. The man approaches the grave and talks to the tombstone as a friend, he knows the stone won’t respond but he pretends that the silence is its own way of communicating. He finishes his small slow conversation and says that he has to head home. He pats the grave and walks forward before looking back. He feels a lump in his throat and says goodbye, his voice isn’t audible, but it is easy to see him say it. He’s past his grieving and has found a way to be content… Then the scene quickly heads to black and the credits appear without sound. It heads to the last track.
Sufjan Stevens is in no way a bad songwriter, but his spontaneous nature on this album weakens his true voice. The first half especially makes him look like an amateur, and his true lyricist colours aren’t shown properly, and it makes the listener groan at his perceived “fakeness”. The second half is pretty good but nothing to put on your playlist or to play for fun. When you’re having a depressive episode you could consider it.
Verdict
Not a good album, some tracks are great however, you’ll just need to hit the skip button a lot to get past the groaning. On a number system I’d give Carrie and Lowell: 2/10 for the first half and 6/10 for the second. 5/10 overall, wouldn’t recommend.