AR: Seven Swans

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (2004)

Three things stand out about this great indie-darling folk singer-songwriter's 2004 entry.

One, it's sparer than much of his other work. Whereas Greetings From Michigan employs a bit of a kitchen-sink aesthetic, this is predominantly acoustic guitar / banjo and tenor vocals with occasional help from two back-up singing angels females, some bass, and an organ. The setting is intimate and feels as though it's with a straight-faced coffeehouse companion in the wee hours.

Two, it's no less beautiful for being spare. "Hauntingly gorgeous" repeatedly comes to mind, particularly on the first half of the album where the tightly crafted tunes absolutely drip. That straightforward spare-but-luscious vibe gets dropped at moments for the tense ("Sister"), the dark ("A Good Man is Hard to Find") and the downright apocalyptic ("Seven Swans"). A wide range of emotion is skillfully captured by limited instrumentation here, and the lack of tricks guarding said emotion serve to emphasize brutal sincerity.

Three, it's explicitly Christian, and this is the factor that garners easily the most scrutiny in album reviews. The indie rocker genre, couched as it is in the slack-jawed ironism of e.g. Pavement, is not known for its investment in institutionalized religion or heartfelt declarations of faith/devotion to G/god(s) of any kind*. So when a bona fide star, fresh off the borderline absurd declaration of a project to make an album for each of the fifty-nifty United States - itself a sort of epitome of yeah-right ironism - delivers a side album on religion, the horn-rim bespectacled get uncomfortable. This had all kinds of potential to be self-indulgent and HELLA AWKWARD, an album that alienated the seriously religious ("how dare he!") and the seriously ironic ("how dare he!") alike.

* - With the possible exception, I suppose, of the declaration of love for Jesus Christ on Neutral Milk Hotel's "King of Carrot Flowers, Pts. 2 and 3." This is a bombastic blast that disrupts the song sequence to great effect, and honestly, I've never been able to tell how sincere it is. Whether it is ironic or not, though, it will make your average hipster CRINGE in public. Religious love is too post-ironic to bear, maybe?

Fortunately for all involved, the three standout factors interweave and make this a powerful album for both sides. The spare, confessional nature of the music, along with the pervasive beauty that consequently bears marks of inspiration, nail a particular region of religious music in a way that seemingly only a hyperaware indie musician could. He dodges the pitfalls of preachiness by keeping his accounts to narratives-not-imperatives, and he one-ups more or less every Christian rock band out there* by eschewing platitudes and delivering his devotionals in original verse, thereby dodging anything resembling cheesy. The Christian element is refreshingly subtle, and I say that even though there are narratives about prophets and Abraham and Revelations and Transfiguration. He flat out executes a non-imposing but revealing personal Christian account of his own faith / spiritual love, so even though the elements are so obviously culled from *the* religious tradition, they are not obtrusive for the listener.

* - I should confess that this is based on a very limited knowledge of Christian Rock, and my impressions are largely based on television commercials for Time Life compilations that include masses swaying like idiots to glazed out tunes of "lift me higher" and such. But it does seem to be enough of a shtick that Stevens's utter self-awareness makes that brand of Christian pop rock look utterly insincere and foolish. He's more Kierkegaard than youth group evangelical is what I'm getting at, and there's a fervor to his message that is plainly absent from those acoustic strum-alongs.

Indeed, some of the religious sentiment is so bland as to be vague; the love songs' target is only obvious in context and could have been about a comely lass just as easily. And some of the poetry, outside (again) of the accompanying music, is fairly plain. In other words, while a gorgeous work that gives us a seemingly pure narrative of Sufjan's religious leanings, this album isn't quite a revelation, just devotion put to music. Put exceptionally well, but it's not like the concepts here are explosive. Still, this is a classic strength/weakness - his non-attempt to transcend keeps the disc reined in, simultaneously stopping offense and providing a nice juxtaposition of passion and restraint.

There are some relative missteps. "Abraham" is the most overtly biblical tune but doesn't really grab me, and "Size Too Small" is pretty enough but doesn't crackle. The organ in "He Woke Me Up Again" grates. Most of this occurs toward the back half of the album, making this another front-loaded experience. All of that said, the front is incredible, the middle tune "Sister" an epic work of somehow-intriguing cyclical anticipation, and the closing duo - "Seven Swans" and "The Transfiguration" - put an awesome, traditional sense, stamp on a cohesive disc. ("SS" in particular contains a single stratospheric wail that gives me chills of exactly the kind that were aimed for; the song haunts so well as to be unnerving, and that is beyond a compliment).

The front of this disc is more than enough to warrant its recommendation. The first four songs exhibit expert songcraft, and coming off the heels of GFM, it continues to be hard to believe that there exist humans with this much creativity in their pinkies. Seven Swans is, plainly put, a gorgeous disc that happens to be about Sufjan's relationship with God. Very brave of him to attempt it, impressive of him to have pulled it off, and more impressive still that he did so in a way that does not intrude on the listener's beliefs, just invites him/her to hear some tunes with no pretense of will to convert, just share.

Status: Recommended

Nyet's Fave: "Sister"

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention that this was an album review by request for Aaron, my bro, who is quite the SS fan. This album is also one that we got for my mom one Christmas on the strength of GFM (i.e., not knowing anything about this disc or its religious content), so hopefully she'll have a newfound reason to check it out again.