Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Album: Carrie & Lowell
Released in the Spring of 2015 to overwhelming critical acclaim, Carrie and Lowell deals with the process of grief following the 2012 death of Sufjan’s estranged mother. While Sufjan has an undoubtedly prolific discography, Carrie and Lowell is Sufjan at his best; tinkling guitar, the quiet whir of a Brooklyn air-conditioner, and Sufjan’s emotionally bare, soft falsetto.
We’ve been tempted in the past to ascribe nuanced autobiographical tones to Sufjan’s music (just try googling “is Sufjan gay?”), but Sufjan’s childhood—the sense of abandonment, masturbation, learning to swim—is intimately explored in explicit terms. Sufjan has created an extensive exploration of the shift that occurs when a loved one dies, and furthermore, the complications that arise when you begin grieving for someone who should have been better. Sufjan is unapologetic in this sense, showing that grief, while universally painful, is not universally the same.