Style: Experimental indie-folk, compare to Anathallo, The Welcome Wagon, Danielson
All Delighted People
August 23, 2010
Top Tracks: “From the Mouth of Gabriel,” “Heirloom,” “All Delighted People (Original Version)”
This 8-song, hour-long EP is a follow-up to the wordless, symphonic The BQE. The splashes of brass and electronica, choral vocals and poetic lyrics are signature, but call the collection Sufjan in long-form. The 11-minute title track—a “dramatic homage to the Apocalypse, existential ennui, and Paul Simon’s ‘Sounds of Silence'”—successfully undulates with operatic movements, but the 17-minute “Djohariah” grows repetitive. Overall, there’s a somber weight to these cryptic chapters. Are they conversations between lovers, enemies, the Creator, and creation? The narratives are worth mining as Stevens spirals through humanity’s brokenness yet stirs spiritual longing.
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