Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

A Tour of Overwhelming Beauty

"Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" How could you not? Sufjan Stevens' beautiful, breathtaking album circles round and round in masterfully orchestrated bombasts and lulls. If you've never heard it before, it's much much more than this demo.

Released in 2005, the baroque-folk-pop album Illinois marked Sufjan's fifth and the second of the supposed "50 states project." The album winds through the cities and towns and hills of Illinois with stories from history and fiction and fantasy that lift the spirit and break the heart through swelling trumpets and plucking banjos and soaring strings and tender voices. Sufjan recruited many friends to contribute sounds to the album, and he played all of the instruments you are capable of naming and about a half dozen others that you've never heard of. An absolute masterpiece in literary terms and musical terms. I invite you to let Sufjan's spirit soar with you in tow; it'll be the gentlest of tugs to the highest of heights.