Five Reasons 'Greetings From Michigan' Gave Us Hope (in the Great Lakes State)

If you like Sufjan Stevens and states shaped like mittens, I've got just the piece for you. In honor of the ten-year anniversary of Stevens' Greetings From Michigan, I got to put together a Five Reasons article on the album's relevance to the Great Lakes State a decade later.

And the best part? I restrained myself from mentioning how "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" was featured on The O.C.

Be proud. (And watch the clip from the show above anyway!)

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"Give A Little Love" : Sufjan Stevens

I ran into a song by Sufjan Stevens the other day called "Give A Little Love." Technically the song, or rather unfinished demo, hit the Internets back in March, but I'm going to go on a limb here and say maybe it got by you too. Apparently he found it on an old hard drive and stuck it on his Tumblr. May we all find such things on our hard drives.

Stevens suggested it might be an outtake from 2010's All Delighted People. That's funny to me because  I didn't dig that album very much (definitely not as much as I loved Age of Adz), but I love this track. There's something buried way down in the melody that's mildly Motown. Also, I like to pretend Stevens keeps a full choir of people stashed in a room in his apartment.

Mr. Frosty Man : Sufjan Stevens

Because the world isn't grim and unsettling enough, please enjoy the latest from Sufjan Stevens's forthcoming Christmas album Silver and Gold, entitled "Mr. Frosty Man."

The premise: A nuclear reactor spills radioactive goo on a graveyard and zombies attack a little family who lives near by. Fortunately, the family's snowman is part Rambo. Much blood is spilled. Intestines wind up EVERYWHERE. And it's a claymation– the quintessential childhood Christmas special medium. So yeah, might need to spike your eggnog after this 2-minute Christmas bonanza of joy.

Fol Chen Covers Sufjan

It's a mouthful right? Pitchfork posted this awesome cover of one of Sufjan Stevens's latest tracks, "I Walked," off last fall's The Age of Adz. The band is Fol Chen, Stevens's mysterious Asthmatic Kitty label mates who hail from L.A.

I first found Fol Chen via Paste Sampler CD. They've got a sweet, techy tune called "Cable TV." Check it out. The lead singer's cool, disinterested vocals make the song.

Too Much : Sufjan Stevens

Hipsters are real.

More Sufjan For Less

The Age of Adz is $3.99 on Amazon. In the wise words of our bird-like buddy, Jónsi, "go do!"

I Walked : Sufjan Stevens

A quick word. Sufjan Steven's upcoming album The Age of Adz is set to be released Oct. 12 (Hey! That's tomorrow!) and I had a few fleeting moments at work today to hear it streaming on NPR. I didn't get all the way through, but I made it to "I Walked," which so far is my favorite track. Upon Googling, I realized that my alter ego-- the Hyde to my Jekyll, if you will, apparently downloaded it for free off his Band Camp site and immediately forgot. How do I put this-- song is fantastic.

It's definitely a different feel from Sufjan Stevens's other records. Stephen Thompson from NPR described the sound as being less "precious." I think that's a really good way to put it. It's more electronic-- drum machines and all that business. At the same time though, there are parts of this song that have that "precious" feel that we've come to know and love from Stevens.

While part of me is intimidated at the 25-minute track that closes out the album, I think I want to pick up The Age of Adz anyway. I'm just thinking that my collection needs these sounds in it. Guess we'll see.

The Musically Inclined's Top Albums of the Decade

Several weeks ago, every music publication and their mother('s publication?) started putting out "best of the decade" lists. Of course, until that moment I hadn't actually thought about the fact that the decade was ending until Bob Boilen was waxing nostalgic about OutKast or whatever.

That said, if everybody's doing it (always solid justification to do anything), TMI would be remiss not to throw together a completely subjective list of albums from this first decade of the millennium, in the effort to celebrate (and to impress the reader-- more solid justification) the finer points of the past ten years.

Criteria: Must own album.

Note: I got 99 albums and Jay-Z ain't on one. Or Bon Iver. Or any White Stripes before 2006. Never bought the Arctic Monkeys album. Refused to buy anything by Arcade Fire. No, Wilco is not on this list either.

So here, not truly grounded in anything but my mood this afternoon, are The Musically Inclined's Top Albums of the Decade.

Send your eye-rolling grievances to
themusicallyinclined@gmail.com.

Much love,

Erin

Greetings from Michigan : Sufjan Stevens : 2003

Everyone always raves about Come on Feel the Illinoise, but Greetings from Michigan was the album TMI was interested in. It was partly due to my undying love for states that look like articles of clothing, but mostly it was because when I heard it, I knew Stevens hit Michigan on the head. Things have been rough up there, but there's a lot of natural beauty when you get past the economically depressed cities. Stevens managed to balance some of the grim realities of Michigan, with a sound that matched icicles on tree branches and the gorgeousness that is the Upper Peninsula. Plus, TMI first heard "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" on The O.C. in the Spring of '06. It felt significant.

Tranatlanticism : Death Cab for Cutie : 2003

Still the best Death Cab for Cutie album to date. More refined than their way early sound on Something About Airplanes, yet these were the edgier days before computers took over on Plans. Transatlanticism is Death Cab for Cutie at its best. Of course, this is not to say that TMI wasn't crazy about Plans... in fact, TMI would probably buy a box set of the band tuning their guitars, but really. Just about every song on Transatlanticism is a winner - "The Sound of Settling," "Expo '86," "Title and Registration," "Passenger Seat"-- this is the place to start if you haven't already.

Home : Dixie Chicks : 2003

Random country album? Maybe. Back in the day before The Dixie Chicks wrote mildly bitter songs about being wronged, they decided to go acoustic on their (in their current line up) third album, Home. It was ridiculously good-- a reprieve form that glitzy glossy commercial crap that passes for country these days. It was a little bit rootsy, a little bit folksy, but mostly just really solid. From "Long Time Gone," to the cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide," to "Lil' Jack Slade," to the super powerful "Top of the World," The Dixie Chicks laid down the direction that country music should have gone in-- "More Love," less Miley.

American Idiot : Green Day : 2004

It was like those angsty kids in middle school grew up a (little) bit and made a somewhat serious statement. Who knew? Between "Give Me Novacaine," "Tales of a Broken Home," and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," we started to get a grim picture of a generation raised by the media and popular culture. Or you could just sing along and pretend like you're angry. That's fun too.

Continuum : John Mayer : 2006

Room for Squares was an album for lusty teenage girls. Heavier Things spoke of potential. Continuum was the product of not a teen heart throb or one more drippy, sensitive singer, but of a highly talented guitarist and lyricist. Continuum was bluesy and soulful in a manner we didn't think Mayer was capable of, and it put him on track for "guitar great" status. Continuum is so rich, I only like to listen to it on occasion-- don't want to take it for granted. I also treat mangoes that way, but that's a separate issue.

In Rainbows : Radiohead : 2007

Maybe it's that I'd never listened to Radiohead seriously before. Maybe it's their avant garde marketing strategy. Maybe it's the way "15 Steps" is some strange breed of entrancing and infectious. "Videotape," "House of Cards"-- being classified as "un-radio friendly" never sounded so appealing.

Wincing the Night Away : The Shins : 2007

I bought this album after hearing the Garden State soundtrack for the first time a few years back (and who didn't?!). "Australia" is my most-played song on iTunes-- which is funny because I can never remember specific times when I've listened to this album. It's like an unconscious instinct pulls me back to Wincing the Night Away and I gladly follow. Cryptic, catchy, lightly sprinkled with 60's Brit pop, TMI eagerly awaits whatever James Mercer (and whomever he's wrangled for the line up) releases next.

Boxer : The National : 2007

Describing The National as "orchestral pop" does not do the band justice. Sophisticated sounds back the uncertainty of drifting into an oblivion of adulthood. Beautiful, often poignant imagery almost makes you want to be 30, if only for the drama and doomed romance of blue blazers, swanky apartment parties, and friends you can barely recognize anymore. Also, there seems to be a critical consensus that front man Matt Berninger's voice sounds like a variety of liquors. How could they go wrong?

Which albums made your list?