Sufjan Stevens Songs Ranked
Sufjan Stevens (born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released eight solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Academy Award and Grammy Award nominations. Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of Enjoy Your Rabbit and the lo-fi folk of Seven Swans to the symphonic instrumentation of Illinois and Christmas-themed Songs for Christmas. He employs various instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording. Stevens’ music is also known for exploring various themes, particularly religion and spirituality. Stevens’ eighth studio album, The Ascension, was released in 2020. Here are all of Sufjan Stevens’ albums ranked.
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15. Visions of Gideon (Call Me by Your Name: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2017)
“Visions of Gideon” is another very strong ballad, this focusing more on the fallout of a relationship, its more melancholic in nature but nonetheless offering a gorgeous melody.”
14. I Want to Be Well (The Age of Adz, 2010)
“This song begins with a fairly average electronic intro; but at about the 2:30 mark this song changes. It changes into a deeply emotional chronicle of Sufjan’s own struggle with and unknown disease. This song is literally my favorite song as of right now.”
13. Mystery of Love (Call Me by Your Name: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2017)
“Mystery of love” is a gorgeous, gorgeous ballad driven by beautiful guitar chords and lyrics describing the awe and innocence of falling in love. Even if the film it soundtracks was terrible, it would still be worth a watch just because of this song.”
12. Concerning the Ufo Sighting Near Highland, Illinois (Illinois, 2005)
“This song is just so… mystical. I think its mood is very haunting, one full of awe. Looks like Sufjan connects UFO sightings with supernatural events, possibly God’s incarnation as Jesus (always keep the bible in mind when interpreting his lyrics!) or the second coming of Jesus (according to the dictionary a “revenant” is “one that returns after death or a long absence”)”
See more: Sufjan Stevens Albums Ranked
11. Futile Devices (The Age of Adz, 2010)
“Futile Devices” opens the album quietly. This is the old Sufjan we hear, just him and some pretty instrumental stuff and one of his shimmering melodies. “futile devices” is reused from Age of Adz, but its by far the strongest song from that album in my opinion, and the more folky companions it receives on this EP are more suitable”
10. The Dress Looks Nice on You (Seven Swans, 2004)
“Stevens is one of the best and most original American singer-songwriters to have emerged in the current century. He can be very Baroque when he wants to be, but he is perhaps at his most devastatingly effective when he goes for subtlety. Understatement is definitely one of his strong suits, and the sparse vocal paired with a simple banjo riff works wonderfully here. The shy, restrained compliment offered in the song’s title rounds out his subtle songcraft.”
9. For the Widows In Paradise, for the Fatherless In Ypsilanti (Michigan, 2003)
“The song is interpreted how you want it to be interpreted. If it has an impact on your life then who cares what someone else thinks it means. Just be happy with the way it makes you feel. It is still a beautiful song.”
8. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. (Illinois, 2005)
“This song fills me with such strange emotions. It is one of the most beautiful songs that I have ever heard and it is about a serial killer. Sufjan is a true artist.”
7. Fourth of July (Carrie & Lowell, 2015)
“This is very mind-opening song. it is about a conversation between sufjan and his mother and the main point is to tell how short life really is. in they talk about light as a metaphor to life “Make the most of your life, while it is rife. While it is light” but the events where light is involved are so short for example in 4th of july the light lasts only seconds and then it is darkness again. In the song Sufjan says to his mother “Oh could I be the sky on the Fourth of July?”. By this he wants to tell her that Even though life is so short flash of light in the darkness I wanted to spend this moment with you.”
6. Death With Dignity (Carrie & Lowell, 2015)
“As for Death with Dignity, again one of my favorites. I do think it should have been last on the album though, as it feels like it resolves all the darkness of the other songs.”
See more: The Best Albums of 2015
5. Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Illinois, 2005)
“Sufjan’s album vacillates musically from soul-searching folk tunes to big, complex, multi-layered production numbers that would be perfectly comfortable in a broadway show. It is an entralling emotional journey that takes us to the depths of Sufjan’s darkest moral nadirs to his most triumphant and hopeful epiphanies.”
4. Impossible Soul (The Age of Adz, 2010)
“Why should songs be 3-5 minutes long? It should be as long as it needs to be even if it is 25 minutes. Sure Sufjan Steves could have split this up into a number of catchy smaller pieces but this plays out as it should. For a long track it never gets boring or repetitive (and a 2 minute jingle can be both). It makes you feel like you did when you would listen to a full side of a concept album. You want to sit there and pay attention and go along for the ride.”
3. Chicago (Illinois, 2005)
“Despite no shortage of competition, “Chicago” stands as the most impressive track on 2005’s Illinois. Set against a backdrop of warm strings and brass, the song finds Stevens alternating between hushed introspective verses and a chorus that remains his most triumphant to date. Set near the album’s halfway point, those celebratory choruses provide a much-welcome propulsive quality to an often-reserved – and rather long – record.”
2. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us! (Illinois, 2005)
“Speaking of “Predatory Wasp”, that’s the album’s most under-discussed track, and I’m not sure why. What a gorgeous piece of brotherly love that is, particularly the ‘we were in love’ round-like singalong with the speckling wind instruments. It’s my favorite track on the album, save the flat-out perfect “Decatur”.
1. Casimir Pulaski Day (Illinois, 2005)
“Sometimes I find the general motion of “Casimir Pulaski Day” sort of distractingly jaunty, of all things, which is weird considering the subject matter. And yet that can add another level of poignancy, like it’s being sung around a campfire years later as a modest proposal to understand whatever quiet agony has remained.”
