The Daily Spin, June 8
Sufjan Stevens | Carrie & Lowell
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
Album: Carrie & Lowell (2015)
Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Link:
There’s something about this album, in particular, that hits me harder than all but two or three I’ve ever listened to - whether it’s in Stevens’ vocalizations, or the way that every single note in each of these songs yearns and pulls at your heart, but god. I was not in the right emotional state for this one if I’m being entirely honest, but fuck it we ball.
Normally, I’m someone for whom the music comes before the lyrics, but I think I’d be off-base if I didn’t note just how masterfully designed the lyrics to this entire record are. Walking that fine line as he does, touching on topics like broken relationships, suicidal ideation, and the emptiness that has a knack for creeping into corners we leave untouched.
It’s brutally honest, refreshingly so. Stevens refuses to back down from these fears, from these harsh feelings - and yes, there are moments of strong self-loathing, but as someone who’s struggled with that, this album contains so much of what I wish I had been able to say at my lower points.
He refuses to kowtow to the platonic ideal of coping - and yes, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with seeking professional help, that’s not what I’m saying - but god, there is something deeply satisfying in being angry and hurt and sad, and it’s those depictions he’s always done particularly well - but never better than here, where he lets so much of it wash over you as you listen, creaky guitars and a piano just this side of worn down under his soft lyricism, a depth I’ve come to be familiar with that still remains impactful so much later.
It’s melancholia at its finest - even as he talks about bleeding out in his bathtub, the song flutters around him, almost as if to signal to the hope in anything.
Rating: 9.5/10
Best Tracks: The Only Thing; Blue Bucket of Gold; Death with Dignity
Worst Tracks: Carrie & Lowell