FUSE TV - Dear Sufjan Stevens: De-Clutter Your Life (Or At Least Your Live Show)

Dear Sufjan Stevens,

Hey there! Big fan. Hope all’s well. Before anything else, a quick thanks for making my favorite album of last year. There were a lot of great albums released last year, but Carrie & Lowell was the one that was the most moving, for me. Thanks for that!

So, I just watched you headline Pitchfork Music Festival on Saturday night, and I’m writing out of concern. This is the fifth time I’ve seen you in concert, and it was by far the most perplexing performance of yours I’ve witnessed. You ended with a Prince cover while wearing a helmet sporting several balloons. You said at the beginning that you wanted to make this show upbeat after a year of touring behind such a sad record, and then played your saddest song ever, “Fourth of July.” You broke out the vocoder, again! What’s going on, Suf? Are you okay?

Let me level with you: I’m not a fan of The Age of Adz. Your 2010 electronic opus was fiercely beloved by a lot of critics and a few of my stranger friends, but personally, I don’t get down with the glitchy beats, pseudo-spiritual mantras or noise experimentations, especially when compared to your brilliantly intimate lo-fi. I’d rather watch you wax poetic on a banjo instead of physically smash that banjo, put on a giant disco-ball jumpsuit, climb up a shimmering ladder and sing a 25-minute anthem, as you did on Saturday night. When you focus on The Age of Adz in your live shows, you—one of this century’s most accomplished folk-leaning artists—go maximalist, surreal and goofy. You take your sound and inject some theatrical goo in its center.