Javelin

Description

Sufjan Stevens' new album, Javelin, his first solo album since The Ascension in 2020 and his first in singer-songwriter mode since Carrie & Lowell in 2015, connects all these approaches more than ever. Each song on Javelin starts modestly. The trickle of an acoustic guitar, the tapping of a closed piano, the cascade of a bright arpeggio. These small sounds are calls to confession, invitations sent to confidants. And then, of course, there’s that disarming voice, a common thread through one of the most fascinating songwriting careers of this century – soft yet strong, as if the scenes of pain and hope she is about to share have only galvanized her over the decades. Javelin combines musical breadth with emotional depth, a lifetime of feelings woven not only into these 42 minutes but also into each song. The construction of Sufjan's emotional world permeates every corner of Javelin, especially the 48-page art and essay book that accompanies the album. In the middle, ten short essays by Stevens, funny, tragic, poignant, or obtuse, offer insight into the loves and losses that have shaped him and these songs. On Javelin, Sufjan, as you may know him best, is back: he offers beautiful and painful glimpses of himself so that we can see ourselves more fully.