“Javelin,” Sufjan Stevens’ 10th solo album and second this year, powerfully meditates on love and loss, finds hope in heartbreak and offers comfort through candor.
The album, a tour through the electronic, orchestral and folk styles found in the indie songwriter’s discography, was released on the heels of Stevens revealing his diagnosis with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease that affects the nervous system. He is now receiving treatment.
On the day of the album’s release, Stevens wrote on his website: “This album is dedicated to the light of my life, my beloved partner and best friend Evans Richardson, who passed away in April.” Ending his tribute optimistically, he reminds his readers to appreciate all they still have.
The album begins with a deep inhale and a solitary piano on “Goodbye Evergreen” as Stevens mourns endings he never thought would come. Though the song starts minimalistically, it only takes a little over a minute for it to explode with loud percussion and distorted electronics that would fit well on the tracklist of his 2010 album “The Age of Adz.” It’s a stunning opener that foreshadows the eccentric album ahead.
The next two tracks were released as the third and second singles, respectively. “A Running Start” is a guitar-picked ballad with orchestral backing stylistically close to his early albums like “Seven Swans.” Stevens said the track was about the “exhilarating power of first loves and first kisses.” The third song, “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?,” starts acoustic but ends boldly and brightly. The singer might at first seem self-pitying, but he concludes with the assurance of someone who has experienced loss before.
“Everything That Rises” and “Genuflecting Ghost” bring listeners to the altar with numerous religious references, as he asks “Jesus, lift me up to a higher plane / Can you come around before I go insane,” on the former. The latter is a hymn-like standout that, like many of his songs, is either about his lover or Jesus.
Starting the second half of the album is the Christmas-y “My Red Little Fox”—a love song that is the album’s most elegant in its instrumental build. Next comes the first single, “So You Are Tired,” which draws on 2015’s “Carrie and Lowell.” Here, Stevens yearns for earlier days in a now-faltering relationship, first squarely blaming himself then transferring those accusations to his partner whose disinterest has broken the singer.
Even still, Stevens holds guilt on the next song. “Javelin (To Have and To Hold)” is the shortest and simplest on the album — accompanied by acoustic picking, its remorseful lyrical repetition makes it one of the album’s most heart-wrenching listens.
For the penultimate track, Stevens taps The National’s Bryce Dessner for slow electric guitar. “S— Talk,” the longest song at eight and a half minutes, is a farewell to a lover he’ll never stop loving and a relationship that never could work. The song features a two-minute ambient outro leading into the finale.
Stevens takes many liberties as he covers Neil Young’s “There’s A World,” trading out the original’s march-style for sparse folk guitar and the nihilism for something more hopeful, which makes it even more moving than Young’s version.
While “Javelin” is painfully tragic, Stevens still stresses that there is always something that makes life worth savoring. Take stock of that, the artist tells us in the dedication for one of the best albums released this year: “Let us rejoice and be glad.”
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