Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz

I want to point out first and foremost. Sufjan Stevens might be one of the most overrated artists I've ever heard. So if you don't agree with that statement you won't agree with this review and that's fair enough. I've been listening to Stevens extensive body of work over the past couple weeks and I can safely say that he is a talented man. He does solid work and he has made some great albums.. Is he one of the greatest song writers of all time?? Well, no, but he could be eventually. Well that was what I thought until I heard "The Age of Adz".

Can I just say right now that if you are known for doing great indie pop rock that doing an electronic album is a stupid move? First of all you sound like an idiot who listened to too much Moby one day and thought it would be a great idea to try it for yourself. So from what I've heard Stevens did every instrument on this album and I believe it. Its so crudely recorded with so many sounds together is more like a muddy mess. The vocals are all over the place ranging from very good to down right horrible.There are times where I almost get what he was thinking with the musical direction, but then something comes out of left field to change my mind. The use of sampling on some of the songs is so horrible that I found myself cringing while listening to some of the tracks. The songs that are the worst culprit are all of them but I'll do my best at giving fair examples. The title track for me is particularly horrible and if you listen careful you can hear the spin sound that Sonic the Hedgehog uses as one of the sounds. Again I use the word muddy, this album is a muddy mess. Too much in the musical world is a bad thing. If you saturated your music with too many sounds you do the opposite of what you should be intending to do, which is making enjoyable music to listen to. Not music for people to guess to.

If you really want a good album that implements the electronic sound well see "Rings Around the World" by Super furry Animals or Miracle Fortress's "Five Rose's"

I give The Age Of Adz 0 bleeding ears out of 5