LogFAQs > #976608608

A couple post-Illinois thoughts considering Sufjan has had a busy couple weeks.

I alluded to a few of the tracks on Illinois probably being queer, which has now been confirmed by Sufjan publicly coming out. Unfortunately, he did so to dedicate his new album Javelin to his partner, who died earlier this year.

It feels odd to admit to anticipating a famous person coming out. My assumption had been that he simply felt no need; like, just look at his lyrics. Does someone need to "come out" when they have released songs about gay romances? Not to mention contributing two songs to the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack. But "The Predatory Wasp" was a very important comfort during my own coming out, yet there was always that sense of self-consciousness, that I truly was reading too deeply into it. I feel validated, but there's an emptiness to it all considering the circumstances...

Like, can this man get a break? The Age of Adz was written after a severe health crisis. Carrie & Lowell was written in response to the death of his schizophrenic mother who abandoned him at a young age. Now this (alongside a recent Guillain-Barr syndrome diagnosis). It's difficult to tell if the songs are a response; they certainly read eerily close to someone mourning the end of a relationship.

Javelin itself is looking to be my runaway album of the year (right after Mitski had jumped ahead of the pack). It's probably only his third best album, which is still good enough to probably land in my all-time top 50. It's one of those rare albums where it feels like an explorative artist returning to familiar territory, but instead of feeling like someone running out of ideas, it acts like a synthesis of all his disparate strengths. It also feels more approachable than his other albums; less dense than Illinois and his electronic epics and less despairing than Carrie & Lowell. I could also see "Will Anybody Ever Love Me?" ending up as my favorite song of the year.