It’s not very often that I hear a song on the radio and think, ‘fuck me I really need to own that record.’ But tonight while driving to work I heard two!

The first came as I was on my way through Ellesmere Port, driving very fast, listening to Paul Gambaccini on Radio 2FM. Saturday night is when he takes a look at what is going on in America, both past and present. When I switched on the Radio I was running late, Paul was some ways through his show, Frank Sinatra was singing Chicago, which was cool in my book. Then Paul said “That was a song from the 50’s about the windy city. 1 in the Internet album charts this week is an album dedicated to that city’s home state, Illinois, from an artist called Sufjan Stevens. In fact the album is called Illinoise and here from it is a modern day take on the windy city, track 9 Chicago.”

So I kept driving and this song came on, I turned up the car stereo, and started to sing along to a song I had never heard before, something that never, ever happens! So come Monday morning I got my arse into the record store and found the album. Of course the first song I played when I got home was the obvious one, but then I listened to the whole album, and what a surprising a record it is. The songs are often two minutes and the five, from instrumentals to horn laden epics. Now those are some fucked-up song titles for sure, some of them make sense, some of them, even when you have heard the record, do not. But the fact of the matter is it does not matter because this is one of those records that slipped through the net, and should have been on so many ‘best of’ album lists, including mine… (Rough Trade, where the fuck were you - AGAIN?)

To quote Robert Burrow, who wrote a review on Amazon where you can get this album, “You certainly can’t fault the man’s ambition.” (Come On Feel the) Illinoise is Sufjan Stevens’ second offering in his attempt to record an album for all 50 American states (the first was Greetings from Michigan). And rather than make life any easier for himself, Illinoise is a 20-track concept album, tackling a range of relevant topics from serial killers (John Wayne Gacy, Jr.) to poets (Come On Feel the Illinoise, Part II: Cars Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream) to Superman (The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts).

This is an album you will love to own… so go own it…

5/5

Jj

Track Listing (Yes I Know…)

1. Concerning the UFO sighting near Highland, Illinois

2. The Black Hawk War, or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience But You’re Going To Have To Leave Now, or, “I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them till they are off our lands!”

3. Come On! Feel the Illinoise! / Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition / Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

5. Jacksonville

6. A short reprise for Mary Todd, who went insane, but for very good reasons

7. Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step-Mother!

8. One last “Whoo-hoo!” for the Pullman

9. Chicago

10. Casimir Pulaski Day

11. To The Workers of The Rock River Valley Region, I have an idea concerning your predicament, and it involves an inner tube, bath mats, and 21 able-bodied men

12. The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts

13. Prairie Fire That Wanders About

14. A conjunction of drones simulating the way in which Sufjan Stevens has an existential crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze

15. The Predatory Wasp of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us

16. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!

17. Let’s hear that string part again, because I don’t think they heard it all the way out in Bushnell

18. In This Temple As in The Hearts of Man For Whom He Saved The Earth

19. The Seer’s Tower

20. The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders / Part I: The Great Frontier / Part II: Come to Me Only With Playthings Now

21. Riffs and Variations on a single note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to name a few

22. Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I shake the dirt from my sandals as I run