IVP - Strangely Dim - March Music Madness: I Can See a Lot of Life in You

March Music Madness: I Can See a Lot of Life in You

I've been waiting for this day since December 18. Today the homage to/reimagining of Sufjan Stevens's Seven Swans became available for purchase. (You can get the album here.)

Sufjan's widespread popularity has been based largely on his breakout concept album Come On Feel the Illinoise, which featured the hit single "Chicago." I heard that song and went a little nuts, buying the album for anyone I could come up with an excuse for (prospective authors coming to visit the Illinois-based InterVarsity Press; out-of-state relatives, and so on) and trying to track down the artist himself and cajole him into writing a book (offer's still open, by the way). But eventually the hysteria over a particular album has to give way to one of two things: (a) new hysteria for a different album by a different artist; or (b) a deeper dive into the artist's recording history.

I chose option (b) and picked up Seven Swans, a less eclectic but no less quirky contribution. The tone of Seven Swans stays pretty consistently sober and introspective from beginning to end; it explores the divine-human relationship from angles not typically explored by musicians. Case in point: "The Transfiguration," which I listened to exclusively for an entire day. (You can read about that experience here; in the post I declare myself to be a "Sufjangelical," in contrast to other subgroups such as "Cockburn Christians," which I discuss in more detail here.)

Anyway, in mid-December 2010 I got wind that a tribute album was in the works, featuring such reliable artists as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Derek Webb and Jason Harrod. The album is now streaming at bandcamp.com, and it's awesome. Proceeds go toward breast cancer research, so it's ten bucks well spent. Conspicuously absent is the ethereal "Abraham," a track that unfortunately wasn't finished in time for the album's promised Breast Cancer Awareness Month release. But based on what I've heard of the rest of the album, it will undoubtedly be worth the wait.

Posted by Dave Zimmerman at March 29, 2011 12:43 PM