EASE DOWN THE ROAD

For the past eight years I’ve made it a practice to buy a new album on Christmas Eve. Call it tradition. Typically, I’ve been very lucky, “discovering” such albums as Beggars Banquet, Louder Than Bombs and Space Oddity, to name a few.

Last year left me despondent. Not only was I left to make my momentous purchase on the 23rd, but I had zero inviting leads. After a snow storm and plenty of hot chocolate, I chose Sufjan Stevens’ fourth album, Seven Swans, over Rufus Wainwright’s Want albums.

Once out to my car I realized that the snow had caused a serious traffic jam in the parking lot, and. thus, I sat immobile in my car for an hour or so, just me and Sufjan. Upon my first listen I was relieved by the albums banjo-laden, non-grandiose sound - 2003’s Greetings from Michigan, the Great Lake State‘s arrangements, while great, were often over-baked. Instead, Seven Swans presents a perfect blend of subtle playing, whispered secrets and haunting motifs of spirituality, family, love and self-acceptance.

With a faint whisper not nearly as rich (although more approachable) as Nick Drake’s, Stevens enchants perspicacious banjo-driven compositions with often dark Christian themes. Without an ounce of heavy-handedness, Stevens pays homage to his spirituality on what is his most professional and focused work to date. For the first time in his career, Stevens focuses his energy equally on writing, playing, producing and mixing, in turn putting him at a much higher level of artistic proficiency.

Stevens’ acoustic strum, banjo-slammin’, sparse percussion set-up dominates the preponderance of Swans‘ songs, leaving room to highlight Stevens’ premium compositional skills. “Sister” offers a taste of variety as Stevens’ reacquaints himself with the electric guitar for the largely instrumental epic jam. The closing tracks, “Seven Swans” and “Transfiguration,” are two of the more exquisite songs released in 2004 and work as a perfect example of why Stevens is being hailed as one of today’s most important songwriters.

With no two projects sounding remotely similar, it will be interesting to see where Sufjan Stevens takes his sound for his next release. Will he continue his state-themed game plan, or rather shift his focus to more spiritually themed topics? Either way, I won’t need an excuse (such as holiday tradition) to buy Swans‘ follow-up. Had I purchased Stevens’ latest album before submitting my year-end Top 5 album list to whatzup, things certainly would’ve been different, with Seven Swans gingerly edging out Modest Mouse as one of my five essential albums of 2004. If nothing else, “The Transfiguration” could make any non-partisan listener fall in love with the banjo and possibly Stevens’ vision. A modern-songwriter masterpiece.