Sufjan Stevens will release a new ‘intimate’ album, Javelin, on 6th October via Asthmatic Kitty Records. Javelin marks Stevens’ first solo album of songs since 2020’s The Ascension. He has given us a glimpse by sharing the album’s lead single, ‘So You Are Tired,‘ the beautifully raw track, creating lush, melancholic soundscapes, layering intricate guitar and percussion over atmospheric piano swirls, soaring harmonies and breathy, introspective vocals, rich with intimate tales of hurt and hope. Watch here:
At times, it has the feel of a big team album production but it’s not. Almost every sound here is the result of Stevens at home, building by himself, what sometimes feels like a testament to ‘70s Los Angeles studio opulence
Javelin begins like a self-portrait, detailed yet understated. This is Stevens at his most intimate, calling back to Seven Swans or Carrie & Lowell and then calling you close to share in its internal reckoning, while Neil Young wrote the tender and mystic album closer, ‘There’s A World’.
Javelin is accompanied by a 48-page book of art and essays all created by Stevens, including a series of collages, cut-up catalogue fantasies, puff-paint word clouds, and iterative colour fields.
The ten short essays — alternatively funny, tragic, poignant, obtuse, and specific — offer little glimpses into loves and losses that have shaped him and the songs on the album.
Pre-order Javelin here:
https://sufjanstevens.lnk.to/javelin
S/U/F/J/A/N/ S/T/E/V/E/N/S/ (sufjan.com)