i listen over and over again to illinoise and i dont get it. its ok. it has a few good songs but i dont see whats so special. someone please tell me whats the big deal with this cd!!!

I like the scope and orchestration.

I would check out the thread that we have dedicated to this album.

Lot of insomniacs here who need a good luyllabye album to fall asleep

Alright Dr. Who! Get out of the state!




I like it but don't love it.

I'm with you on this. I've tried many times to get through the whole album and failed on each attempt. Not a bad album (I particularly like the song about Gacy) but not mindblowingly good or even in the top 25 last year, IMO. He sounds like a combination of Flaming Lips and Death Cab to me.

I'm another one who doesn't quite get it. I bought Illinois because it's my home state and I thought some of the song titles were funny (plus it was a copy with the Superman cover which was quickly pulled after release). There's some good songs on it and then some forgettable songs and some instrumentals that are pleasant enough, I guess.

I didn't regret my purchase at all, but then the album started showing up on every "Best Albums of 2005" lists, many times at the top of the list, and I started rolling my eyes every time I read about how this album was somehow equivalent to the second coming.

As a big Sufjan fan, I can see where you're coming from. I think "Illinoise" is a weak effort compared to the "Michigan" album. A little bit of Sufjan goes a long way, if honestly.

you're not alone. i don't think i've ever made it through the entire album in one sitting. by about the halfway mark, i just get sick of it and need something with more energy.

His last album would have been better pared down a little bit.

nice to see im not alone. i thought maybe i didnt have such good musical taste after all!
i do think the "gacy" and "zombie" songs are great though. i watched a gacy movie a few weeks ago (not the one w/ Denehey) and it really made that song much more haunting.

JWG and Chicago are wonderfully written songs. However perhaps Sufjan is best in small doses.

That's probably it. I always like the songs off of Illinoise when they come up in a shuffle with other albums, but listening to the entire album...one song after another...it's a little much.

I absolutely hate is music. I'd rather go to the dentist than listen to two of his songs back-to-back. But I won't deny that he's enormously gifted. It's just not my thing.

Unfortunately for me, last weekend my wife listened to Illinoise and loved it.

the songs are good in doses, particularly Chicago, Gacy, especially "For the Fatherless..." (the best Sufjan song IMO- which, is on the Michigan CD)... but yeah it can be difficult to get through the entire 22-track album.
Chicago is still on my top 10 list of 05 though.

Illinois reminded me of when I first listened to Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. I looked at song titles like Ballad of a Thin Man, Tombstone Blues and Desolation Row, and I thought it was going to sound more like some of the tedious blues songs on Blonde on Blonde. Then I listened to the album, and the music is nothing like the song titles.

Stevens comes up with these interesting song titles, but the songs don't live up to their rococo titles. I want to like a song called "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!", but I don't. Combine that with the whole 50 states concept, and his work looks better on paper than on cd.

I saw three more cds by him at Borders today but I've never heard them.

I can understand why alot like him but there's no rhythm to the album. Every song sounds totally different.

Yes. JWG is by far the best song on the album. He really did his homework on Illinois and I have to hand it to him -- he did a great job at learning our history.

Chi-have you always lived in IL?

Abs is a born Wisconsinite who came to Chicago via Atlanta and the Chicago burbs.

<--born and raised in Chicago. w00t.

The album has so much going on it's almost too much to swallow in one sitting. It's like eating 22 hamburgers at once. I notice when I hear the songs by themselves on XM, they seem easier to digest.

I was looking for something different last year and I discovered Sufjan, thanks to this forum. It ended up being my second favorite album of the year, right behind Nada Surf's "The Weight Is A Gift".

I guess it might be that I can relate to many of the songs or that they're so different, but I just find it an amazing album.

The first song I listened to was Casmir Pulaski Day...something I can really relate to (having a friend dying of cancer)...never really looked back.

= J

i was thinking of starting the same thread.

i don't care if this album is your thing, but like someone said earlier I gag when I see it #1 on every list.