New Sufjan

You may know by now that I have, well, a thing for Sufjan Stevens. The man is quite extraordinarily talented, and produces some of the greatest, in my opinion, music of the new millennium.

Of course, he hasn't released a proper album of new material since 2005. There have been b-sides and Christmas albums, and there will soon be a classical re-mix of an old album (Enjoy Your Rabbit) and an album of orchestrated songs about a highway in Brooklyn (The BQE). But the Sufjan of old has been at rest since Illinois.

Which might not be a bad thing. I complain a lot about the lack of new material from Sufjan, but that's because I, selfishly, want him to keep blowing my mind. There can be too much of a good thing, though; if Sufjan put out an album a year, I think we would be overloaded. Plus, you've gotta give the guy some credit - at least he's not been doing nothing for the last 4 years.

Recently, Sufjan has been touring the U.S. in support of The BQE (but of course, nowhere near Durham). My friends had the unbelievable privilege of seeing him in Cleveland, and my sister, brother-in-law, and unborn nephew will see him next week in Portland, Maine (I will never, ever let my nephew live down the fact that he gets to see Sufjan before I do. Well, maybe not see, but at least attend a concert. You know what I mean.) From the sounds of it, Sufjan is impressing once again with his quirky, awesome musical shenanigans.

The video above was posted to the web last week, having been filmed at one of the recent Sufjan stops. It's the performance of a brand new song, "There's Too Much Love." From the sounds of it, Sufjan might be exploring some more, shall we say, experimental sounds in his new stuff.

I was kind of afraid this was the direction he would be taking when I heard his "You Are the Blood" cover on the Dark was the Night compilation. I should say, I'm very biased towards Sufjan's acoustic, hushed songs, like "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti," "Vito's Ordination Song," and "To Be Alone with You." Those songs have pulled me out of some bad times, and never fail to give me goosebumps, even sometimes bringing tears to my eyes. His jubilant, stuff, meanwhile, is still awesome, but sometimes requires a little bit more patience and the proper mood to really appreciate it. "There's Too Much Love" (and some of his other new stuff, according to my friends) seems to hint that Sufjan might be leaning more towards the latter type of songwriting.

But you know, I'm actually really digging "There's Too Much Love." The spastic interlude towards the end gets a little too crazy, but overall this is a really catchy song. Any other thoughts?