For this stream of Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell, his label, Asthmatic Kitty, have asked that listeners take a quiet moment to “hear the album through headphones, look away from the computer screen” in order to fully immerse themselves in the record.
A deeply personal album – named after Stevens’ mother and stepfather – it’s a departure from his most recent electronic, experimental ventures, and returns to Stevens’ stripped-down roots, leaving space to address issues of “life, death, love and loss, and the artist’s struggle to make sense of the beauty and ugliness of love.”
Such is its confessional, emotive mood, that the artist has been having Silent Sufjan listening parties across the globe. And now you can have your own, solitary listening party too: possibly far from the discerning gaze of your boss. So on your lunchbreak. Or in the loo.
Take a listen to the musician’s seventh studio album and tell us what you make of it.
