Sufjan - say it right or I'll pinch you.

The time has come. 

Sufjan Stevens has been effectively changing my life for two years now and I need to find a way to articulate why and how.

The thing that captivates me most about his music is its spiritual nature. I don't speak directly to the lyrics. Though one has to wonder about his religious background as he references the Holy Spirit, the divinity, Bible Studies and the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. On his album Seven Swans he has songs dedicated to such biblical narratives as Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac and the Transfiguration. 

Beyond this lyrical basis, Sufjan carries an innovative use of instrumentation that, considering the time frame, parallels the innovation of J.S. Bach. If you don't know anything about this Bach-ian innovation let me just say that his blending of international styles to create something that appealed to the Western world as a whole was completely unexpected and beyond what anybody had ever done. In the same way, Sufjan Stevens uses the nature of certain instruments sounds to attain a sound that captures the essence of his musical message. He employs everything from horns to banjos to strings. In his commissioned album the BQE (named after the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) he employs a full orchestra. The know-how required to write for such an ensemble is impressive and strengthens my appreciation of the complexity of the rest of his work.  


I've done some research in an attempt to discover whether Sufjan is a Christ follower or just intensely spiritually and biblically aware. I've come up dry. There is nothing I've found in print to convince me that Sufjan has a working relationship with Christ; yet I stand changed because of his music. 


I took a music fast for two weeks last fall and the broke that fast with Seven Swans. The aim of the fast was to reclaim the affect of music on my soul. At that point I knew nothing could fill my soul like that album. It claimed me then and continues to today.