Sufjan Stevens- The Age of Adz - Vinyl Record 2LP

After the orchestral folk of Illinois, Sufjan Stevens spent five years away from the song format and came back with this. The Age Of Adz, pronounced odds, takes its name and its artwork from Royal Robertson, a Louisiana sign painter and self-declared prophet whose apocalyptic visions run all the way through the record.

The banjos are gone. In their place are drum machines, blown-out analog synths and choral arrangements that swell and then collapse mid-phrase. It is a maximal, anxious album about illness, love and self-doubt, and Stevens sings it far more plainly than anything he had released before. Futile Devices opens quietly enough to fool you. Then Too Much arrives and the electronics take over for the next hour.

It ends with Impossible Soul, twenty-five minutes across a full side, moving through despair, autotune and something close to joy. Divisive on release, now widely treated as his most fearless record.

Side A
1. Futile Devices
2. Too Much
3. Age Of Adz

Side B
1. I Walked
2. Now That I'm Older
3. Get Real Get Right

Side C
1. Bad Communication
2. Vesuvius
3. All For Myself
4. I Want To Be Well

Side D
1. Impossible Soul