Album Of The Day: Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens

Album Art of Sufjan Stevens's Seven Swans album - On a marble brown background, a black-and-white pencil drawing of a swan takes up most of the space, with the head of the swan nearly touching the top and the wingspan of the swan just off the edges. The swan looks like it's either walking with its wings spread out or flying, but it's hard to tell since there's no background or ground to place it on. On each side of the swan's long neck, the artist name and the album title is printed in black in a hand-printed script.

Along with the Album Of The Day highlighting albums I love, it's also a chance to listen to albums I don't listen to much, like today's album. I really enjoyed Sufjan Stevens's Illinois album, but didn't give his earlier works too much of a chance. Released yesterday 11 years ago, this is Sufjan's 4th album and the album between Michigan and Illinois, his two albums about different states. I've only listened to this a few times and found I didn't like it as much as some of his other albums; I found it very mandolin-heavy and a bit slow. But upon today's listening, I found I liked it a bit more than I remember. There's lots of Biblical references here, from reflections on Jesus's life and death to some interpretations on the Book of Revelation. And it's not as slow as I remember. In fact, "Sister" in the middle of the album has an extended rock portion. Sometimes I'm not a fan of Sufjan's somewhat melancholic style, but his songwriting is excellent and I probably should listen to his catalog more.

Release Year: 2004
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Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

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