Time for another official crabwalk.com album recommendation: Sufjan Stevens‘ Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State. A concept album all about Stevens’ home state (and allegedly the first in a 50-state series — I’ll believe that when I see No. 2). Great Michigander-centric track names (“Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid),” “Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!),” “They Also Mourn Who Do Not Wear Black (For the Homeless in Muskegon)”).
This is what folk music should be. It manages to be stripped down and complex at the same time, not least because of Stevens’ amazing instrumental abilities. (He plays no fewer than 21 instruments on the album, including oboe, vibraphone, and wood flute. And the man kicks ass on the banjo. Seriously, this may be the best banjo album in centuries.)
Stereolab’s polyrhythms are an obvious influence, but Stevens trades in their icy cool for a fragile, rickety, emotionally open beauty. Maybe Nick Drake meets Stereolab. The instrumentals are gorgeous, and his voice is like torn velvet. It’s a great record to listen to right before bed.
But the kickers are the two final tracks, “Redford (for Yia-Yia & Pappou)” and “Vito’s Ordination Song.” “Redford” manages to break your heart with a simple, almost monotonous piano line. Then comes “Vito’s.” Get more than two drinks in me and I swear this song’ll make me cry: a funeral-march snare drum, tasteful strings, and beautifully naive vocals by Stevens and Elin Smith, singing “Rest in my arms / Sleep in my bed / There’s a design to what I did and said.” Makes you want to hug people.