The only thing lacking from Sufjan Stevens’ latest endeavor Age of Adz is a warning on the front cover, cautioning the soft-spoken singer-songwriter’s fans that his new album is anything but soft or singer-songwriter-esque. Imagine the string-strumming Sufjan we all know and love, but dragged through a synthesizer and re-arranged into an Edward Scissorhands version of his former self. Voila, this is Age of Adz. Stevens’ inspiration for his new album seems to range from the artwork of the former manically futuristic artist Royal Robertson, a self-described abandonment of a “re-meditated, scholastic, intellectual approach to songwriting” (www.eyeweekly.com) and an existential crisis (Mmm, right). Pretentious? Not really. Consider the scope of this guy’s discography: an experimental collection dedicated to the Chinese zodiac, a biblically-inspired narrative album as well as a five-disc set of all the Christmas classics. I suggest listening to Age of Adz in short intervals of 3-4 songs at a time if you’re an old Sufjan fan, and if you’re just looking for a couple songs to throw on a playlist, I’d suggest checking out “Futile Devices,” “Age of Adz,” “Vesuvius,” and “I Walked.” (Asthmatic Kitty Records, www.asthmatickitty.com) Victoria King
Winnipeg music & culture since 1989