The 10th anniversary edition of Carrie & Lowell, the seventh album from Sufjan Stevens, is out today. The album is primarily about Sufjan’s grief after his mother’s death in 2012. The anniversary edition features new art, previously unreleased demos, and an essay by Sufjan. There is also a complete set of new lyric videos out today as a companion. Below are a couple of recent interviews he’s done around this release.
Sufjan gave an interview to NPR in which he reflected on Carrie & Lowell and discussed the process of putting together the anniversary edition:
- “I went back through the archives and put a lot of photos of myself and my siblings and my parents in it. I think it stands more as a memorial to Carrie and to her life, what little I knew of it. And I think it’s a good idea to use the word celebration as well, because when I made this record, it was just a hot mess. It wasn’t really celebrating anything.”
- “I think this album is evidence of creative and artistic failure from my vantage point. I was trying to make sense of something that is senseless. I felt that I was being manipulative and self-centered and solipsistic and self-loathing, and that the approach that I had taken to my work, which is to kind of create beauty from chaos, was failing me […] I’m kind of embarrassed by this album, to be honest with you.”
Sufjan was also interviewed by Paste Magazine, where he discussed not only Carrie & Lowell but also his fifth album Illinois, which is now 20 years old:
- “I like to think that the work that I do can live far beyond the life that I live on this earth. And I think now, as I’m approaching 50, it’s okay to think even beyond that, beyond my life. 50 years isn’t enough to think about. Maybe we have to think about the next 100 years or 1,000 years. We’re only here for a flash moment, but I think that art is a reflection of the eternal mysteries of the universe.”
Source: YouTube
Source: NPR
Source: Paste
The NPR interview is shorter and an easier read formatting-wise, but the Paste interview is really worth it if, like me, you are into hearing Sufjan’s philosophizing about space, artistry, religion, and America.
