The Land of Lincoln. It is a place known for many facets. Maybe one comes to Illinois for the expansive swaths of cornfield that populate a majority of its area. Maybe it’s for the suburbs where many placid suburbanites spend their days growing older and taller. Maybe it’s for that glorious forest of metal that is Chicago. However, I am revisiting my own home state for one reason alone: a look into the illustrious album of Sufjan Stevens, Illinois. What implores a man from Michigan to look just one state over to inspire him into composing a conceptual genre bending collection of songs?
Funny enough, that story seems to start with Michigan. Not the state that Stevens is originally from, but the album he composed in reverence to it. That previous album and eventually the one this piece is analyzing were meant to be part of what was described as “the 50-state project”. This ambitious, yet unfortunately never fully realized, project was envisioned as a studio length album to correspond with each state in the United States. However, Stevens eventually admitted that this concept was imagined more as a joke and less of an artistic vision. While songs related to Arkansas, New Jersey, and New York were eventually released in some sort of manner or another, Illinois seemed to be the last in this series, albeit far from the last album he released.
For such a midwestern track, one would assume that this was recorded there, however it seemed that this album followed the track record of many albums preceding it, being recorded at The Buddy Project starting in late 2004. While distance may make the heart grow weary, it seems his heart might as well have been in Chicago with the intense reverence he gave his research for this album. He read Illinois authors and combed through Illinois immigration records, and this attention to history is present in the track listing. Whether it be "Casimir Pulaski Day" referencing the actual state holiday that a certain writer of this article may have memories of ditching school for or “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" in reference to the fact Metropolis, home of one of the most popular superheroes in popular culture, originally found inspiration in the city of Chicago. Even if he was a Kansas farm boy, there was an intention that the Man of Steel would be torn between the Cubs and the White Sox.
After an uneventful recording, Illinois was available for the masses. If you’re here reading this, you’re likely already familiar with the acclaim this album soon received. One could argue that this album was one the best to be received from Sufjan Stevens, which isn’t hard to see by the accolades this album garnered. It could be found at the top of many “best of the year” lists, either rounding out the top ten or even claiming that coveted number one spot. Pitchfork exclaimed about the unique nature of this album while The Guardian seemed to follow suit. While many albums of this caliber seem to end up being in the category of “ahead of its time”, Illinois seemed quick in its commercial viability, eventually going gold by the time April 2023 rolled around.
While some of these stories may have happy or heartbreaking endings, I would classify the end of this one into the category of “strange”. After all, how would you put into words an indie album eventually getting its own Broadway show? As shocking as it is to behold, this album did debut a musical about itself the same year it went gold, which I would argue doesn’t put a bow on this story as much as it does put it inside a somewhat confusing package. However, I would argue that there is only one way to end a retrospective on both an album I hold dear and the state from which I hail…
Go bears!