Illinois is a 2005 concept album by American singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. It features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Illinois. Stevens recorded and produced the album at multiple venues in New York City using low fidelity studio equipment and a variety of instruments. Illinois was named the best-reviewed album of 2005 by review aggregator Metacritic.
About Illinois (Sufjan Stevens album) in brief
Illinois is a 2005 concept album by American singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. It features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Illinois. The artwork and lyrics explore the history, culture, art, and geography of the state. Stevens recorded and produced the album at multiple venues in New York City using low fidelity studio equipment and a variety of instruments. Illinois was named the best-reviewed album of 2005 by review aggregator Metacritic, and was included on several reviewers’ \”best of the decade\” lists. It was Stevens’ first to place on the Billboard 200, and it topped the Billboard list of \”Heatseekers Albums\”. The varied instrumentation and experimental songwriting on the album invoked comparisons to work by Steve Reich, Neil Young, and the Cure. Stevens has since not released another album focused on a state, saying in a November 2009 interview with Paste that \”the whole premise was such a joke,\” and telling Andrew Purcell of The Guardian in October 2009 that he has no qualms about admitting it was a promotional gimmick. An Arkansas-related song was released through NPR as \”The Lord God Bird\” and material intended for New Jersey and New York became The BQE. In 2006, several tracks recorded during these sessions were sent to Seattle-based musician and producer James McAllister for follow-up album The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album. The album was released on July 4, 2005, through Rough Trade Records in Europe and starting July 5, 2005 in the United States.
The Adult Contemporary Version was produced during a subsequent tour of Europe and was distributed by Asthmatic Kitty Records starting July 7, 2005. It is Stevens’ second based on a U. S. state—part of a planned series of fifty that began with the 2003 album Michigan and that Stevens has now acknowledged was a joke. Stevens mostly created the album without collaboration, focusing on the writing, performance, and technical creation of the album by himself. He employed low-fidelity recording equipment, which allowed him to retain creative control and keep costs low on recording Illinois. As with his previous albums, Stevens recorded in various locations, with additional piano recorded in St. Paul’s Church in Brooklyn; strings and vocals performed in collaborators’ apartments; electronic organ recorded in the New Jerusalem Recreational Room in Clarksboro, New Jersey; and vibraphone played at Carroll Music Studios in NYC. In the last minute, the song “Multiple Personality Disorder” was supposed to appear on Illinois, but was changed to “The Easy Listening Version” during a tour of New York. Stevens decided against a double album, saying that would be “arantantant” and that he had the material he had recorded during the sessions for these tracks recorded in Seattle for the album “The Avalanche: The Avalanche” In the end, the tracks were released on The Avalanche in 2006 on Rough Trade records.
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