Sufjan Stevens’ new 2023 release, Javelin, feels like a capstone, one that he’s been working up to his entire career. An album born of loss, Javelin channels such difficult emotions in a therapeutic but musical way. With the loss of Stevens’ partner earlier this year, it is of no surprise that this album deals with these difficult issues of love, losing love, and not realizing just what you had until its gone.
If you know me, you might know that I really dislike a lot of longer songs, particularly the eight-minute songs you’ll get towards the end of 2-3-minute-long song albums. This album has one of those, “S**t Talk,” but I really do not hate it. In terms of songs on this album, it’s really become one of my favorites. The core of the song deals with fighting with your loved ones, often before you realize what it means when you lose them. The choral elements bring in a sense of peace, willingness to admit that you’re done fighting. And despite being eight and a half minutes long, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
As the final song on the album, “There’s A World” fails to move mountains. As the end note of a powerful, emotional album, this song isn’t bad. But it feels like it could’ve done more, with “Javelin” or “S**t Talk” or even “My Red Little Fox” feeling a little more apt to leave a final note.
Speaking of “My Red Little Fox,” this song feels perfectly cozy in a really complicated album. That’s not to say this is a simple song, the dramatic change from simple, single singer to chorally backed, emotion filled expressions of loving desire, is a display of complexity, but that doesn’t take away from the vibe I get from it. This is the song I imagine playing as you lay on your couch, coddled in a blanket, but not crying. So much of this album feels like you music you or maybe Stevens is meant to cry to, but “My Red Little Fox” is the song you listen to when you reflect with a sense of semisweet joy, not quite drawing tears, but passing a slight smile onto your face.
My favorite song on the album is “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” The gentle, plucky rhythm and subtle singing brings an evocative emotion from little, with lyrics that feel so personal but also universal. Will anyone love me for unconditional reasons, not just the utility I bring? This question is so important in Stevens’ worldview with this album, and I would say with my life, as with many others, that it is a fundamental question for human existence.
“Goodbye Evergreen” is that complex change from one genre to another on the other end of the spectrum – it’s aggressive, it’s loud, it’s strong. That’s why “Goodbye Evergreen” works so well as a first song on the album, because it’s not going to paint this entire project as a sad one. Javelin is a sad album, it’s born from grief and loss, but it isn’t just a sad album. It’s inspirational, it challenges our understanding of love in the first place, it’s a little angry at times and cheerful at others. Javelin is a great album because this review can’t do everything to describe how it makes you feel – I can’t write a review of this a week after its release and describe every complex thought within it, I would need months of listening, of it being out and simmering in my mind, to fully encapsulate this album as what it is. While I say it’s a great album now, it could be better after a few more weeks of listening. It’s great in an early impressions’ manner, and I am sure it’ll be even better after a few more dozen listens.
Photo from: Asthmatic Kitty
