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Sufjan’s new record is an outpouring of frustration – and the perfect soundtrack to 2020.
I didn’t care much for the ambient instrumental snoozefest, Aporia,
that Sufjan dropped earlier this year. Combined with the classical ballet record
he released in 2019, I worried that the Michigan singer-songwriter might be
straying away from writing actual songs in favour of obscure novelty projects.
However, Sufjan was clearly saving himself for The Ascension – not only does
this album contain plenty of ‘actual songs’, but they’re his most compelling songs
since Illinois.
Melding the off-kilter electronica of The Age of Adz, the
intimacy of Carrie & Lowell and the sonic grandeur of Planetarium,
this new record feels like a culmination of everything Sufjan has been working
on in the last decade. At the same time, it sees Sufjan tapping into a new
emotion – one of pure frustration. Sufjan is not a happy boy on this album. In
fact, he sounds utterly exasperated with life and the world. It’s a frustration
that many of us can relate to in 2020.
Each song sees Sufjan begging for a change or craving an
escape from reality, directed towards an ambiguous second person who could be
God, society or the government depending on your interpretation. In his
typically poetic style, he uses metaphors (such as video games) and allegories (such
as the story of Gilgamesh) to get his message across for most of the album. Tracks
like ‘Die Happy’ are tragically profound. Others such as ‘Ativan’ are a little
more light-hearted (for no reason at all Sufjan announces that he is double incontinent
with the line ‘I shit my pants and wet the bed’)
Many of the songs revolve around repeated lyrical refrains. In
fact, ‘Die Happy’ is literally nothing but the sole line ‘I want to die
happy’ repeated throughout the track. While it’s unusual to hear such
sparse lyricism from Sufjan, the deliberate repetition helps to emphasise the
growing frustration he’s feeling. In each case, the instrumentation slowly
builds and Sufjan’s voice gets more impassioned. In doing so, repeated hooks
like ‘give me an offer I cannot refuse’ and ‘come on, baby, give me
some sugar’ evolve from hopeful wishes to desperate pleas.
From a musical standpoint, this is one of Sufjan’s most
exciting and dynamic albums. There are synthpop jams like ‘Video Game’ that are
groovier and hookier than anything Sufjan has put out before and there are slow
ballads like ‘The Ascension’ that are hauntingly beautiful enough to compete
with Carrie & Lowell. Experimental moments of jittery electronica
and slow ambience are thrown into the mix, giving the album a varied pace. There’s
also a lot of sonic ascension on The Ascension – many of the tracks
start soft and slow and then build to loud and energetic climaxes.
Twelve-and-a-half minute closer ‘America’ is the best
example of this. It’s my favourite track from the record and on target to be my
favourite single of the year. Sufjan’s frustration reaches its zenith on this
track as it builds and builds into an almighty crescendo. It then dissipates into
creepy ambience, as if signalling a total loss of belief, but in the last
minute-and-a-half the ambience turns distinctively melodic, suggesting that there
is still a glimmer of hope to be had (and as the recent US election results
show – there is indeed hope).
At one hour and twenty minutes in length, you could argue
that the album is slightly bloated (just like this review). However, there’s no
track that I’d choose to cut from this record. It’s Sufjan’s best record in a while.
★★★★★
TRACK TASTER: