“Sufjan Stevens remains embarrassed by the raw grief of the 2015 album devoted to his late mother. For its 10th anniversary, Jayson Greene reflects on Carrie & Lowell’s place in his own life.”
“The barest and most vivid music the indie folksinger has ever made”
“Sufjan Stevens has always written personally, weaving his life story into larger narratives, but here his autobiography is front and center. Carrie & Lowell is a return to the stripped-back folk of Seven Swans, but with a decade’s worth of refinement and exploration packed into it.”
“Three songs into Sufjan Stevens’ Javelin, he asks perhaps the most common of questions, plainly and pitifully: “Will anybody ever love me? For good reasons, without grievance, not for sport?” He specifies his vision of this love as fairly uncomplicated, as if it’s not too much to ask for — just the simple promise of someone who will “pledge allegiance to my heart/Pledge allegiance to my burning he”
“Suf(j)an "Subaru" Stevens comes through with an incredibly sad, personal, and subtle record with Carrie & Lowell.”
