Now I know that pretty much every attentive listener has probably noticed that there are only 4 or so different types of songs on this album. Tracks 3 and 20 are very similar, all of the slower songs (John Wayne Gacy, Seer's Tower, and others) bear definite similarities.

Without really paying attention to song titles and lyrical differences, it's really easy to get lost in the sameness. Is this just how he wants to do it, is this how Illinois should sound to him? Does he have the same repititious (sp) habits on his other albums? I'm just curious about how blatant this is and how much people notice it and subsequently care.

I played it for some friends the other night and this one snooty rich girl started tearing it apart for recycling chord progressions every sixth track or so. Does this bother us?

Yeah, Chicago is pretty much the same song as A Good Man Is Hard to Find off of Seven Swans. I'd imagine he's going for some sort of intentional continuity, but maybe chord progressions just get stuck in his head. It doesn't bother me, but I can see someone finding it uncreative.

It's usually the sort of thing that would bother the crap out of me, but there's just such an earnestness to him and his style and a beauty to each of the songs that I'm willing to overlook it.

How charitable of you. I find it quite alarming that after only two 'states' records he's already recycling the same old hoary material.

If the individual states are really as homogeneous as Sufjan Stevens music suggests there's really little point to the whole project.

I agree with the poster directly above me.

But Sufjan's not afraid of staying away from gimmicks. See: A Sun Came and Enjoy Yr Rabbit. I guess the 50 State project is a gimmick, though.

Unless, of course, that is the whole point of the project.

The thing is, the homogeneous nature of both the Michigan and Illinois albums bother me less and less with each listen. Initially that's all that really sticks out - how samey it all is. Eventually, though, that's a big part of what makes it so engrossing. I don't think it's being "generous" to suggest that he's intentionally working towards continuity with the similar chord progressions and arrangements.

Of course, I also hope his future work will vary things up a little more.

I was working on a semi-plausible theory that Illinois and Michigan were so similar because they are bordering states, and Southern Michigan and Northern Illinois share many geographical features, and that maybe "Arizona" would be a mountainous, arid album bearing little similarity to these.

Then I remembered "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is on Seven Swans, not Michigan.

are illinois and michigan bordering states?

Lake Michigan is just a really thick border. Besides, they're the same color on your map, smart guy.

shit, they are the same color....

isnt aqua-blue libertarian?

No, it's hockey.

I don't know many current artists that have more than 3 or 4 different types of songs/chord progressions on an album or dramatically shift musical styles within an album or two.

Scotty cash, I will squeeze your eyeball jelly onto wheat toast and eat it with eggs.

Aqueous or Vitreous?

Well... yeah (the yeah pronounced as "duh").

How many classic albums have the same three chords played over and over .... or, blues? Neil Young? Interpol?

So it's not chord progressions.

I look into the two (Michigan and Illinoise) for arrangements... texures, how the differing instruments are used, soft turning loud, tempo.

Oh Lord God, forgive these heathen for not hearing diversity in your servant Sufjan, open their minds and hearts to the work of Your Word.... in the name of your Son Jeff Buckley...

(On a related note.... Eliot Smith who wrote varied songs, always sounded the same and kinda bored me, and Sufjan, with an admitted similar "tone" or intent of a lot of his songs, continually peaks my interest, makes me hear new things every time I listen...)

fucking lol. well played.

poor aaron.

i was thinking more along the same lines as him though, that maybe these intentionally sound the same because the "feel" of the states is somewhat similar? i haven't heard michigan or seven swans, so i don't really know, but it sounds like the rest of his material is also very similar. seems to be kind of a bummer.

i hope he manages to vary his sound as the project goes on and that things do indeed sound different, because if this is what he plans on doing for the rest of his life i don't know how receptive everyone's going to be.

I think you misunderstood my point. It's okay though. My point is that most people in this thread are holding Sufjan to an unfair level. I mean he puts out a brilliant album in Illinois which has similiarities to Michigan and the first thing people want to do is criticize him for not making something totally unique. C'mon people. Give him a break or go buy Enjoy your rabbit and shut up.

She sounds fun. Does she normally listen to music? Most artists have a pretty standard "template" that they use, otherwise, most people probably wouldn't listen to them because nothing they did would sound even remotely alike.

While I agree with this, I also am curious.

Why is it when Sufjan Stevens or some other acceptable group is repetitive it's somehow worth continued listens and exploration into the greater meaning or underlying message, yet when Nickelback or AC/DC does it they are just targets of ridicule?

I tend to think Sufjan seems more like an artist who would do something like that to acheive a "greater meaning" (whether he accomplishes it is of course arguable) than Nickelback or AC/DC.

Haha, the old "Nickelback" trick. I'm not falling for this one.

Behind the wet Cocker Spaniel exterior of Chad Kroeger is hidden real genius we mere mortals can never comprehend.

I'm thinking it's because the Nickelback kind of repetitive is just plain boring. (I won't touch AC/DC here, they've made an art out of this kind of thing.) And we're talking about Stevens using several different "templates" for songs, unlike Nickelback, who seem to just recycle the same song over and over. But, really, I don't hear that much similarity in that many SS songs - all I'm hearing is "Sufjan Stevens' style."

I can't wait for North Dakota!