History Music / SufjanStevens

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Six out of seven tracks off ''Reflections'' have Greek [[OneWordTitle One Word Titles]]. Then there's the last track: "And I Shall Come to You Like a Stormtrooper in Drag Serving Imperial Realness".

** In 2021 he released a vinyl-only cover of Music/NickDrake's "Pink Moon", to accompany an art book by Marcel Dzama. It's a split record, with Hannah Peel's cover of the same song on the other side.

-->''All the glory when He took our place\\

** It's also the subject of the aptly titled "Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)", off ''Michigan''.
** This is a common interpretation of "No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross," as well.

* FadingIntoTheNextSong: Used all over the place on ''Illinois'', and less conspicuously elsewhere.
** The transition from "Death Star" to "Goodbye To All That" on ''The Ascension'' is a notable non-''Illinois'' example. The instrumentation and background vocals from the first track continue well into the second, and it's easy to miss that a new song has even started until the lyrics kick in.

** The original album art for ''A Sun Came''; the re-release changed it to a fantasy illustration.

* IAmTheBand: of the "solo artist who plays almost everything" variety. (It should be noted that he tours with a backing band, and most of his records - excepting ''All Delighted People'' - feature other performers, albeit in very limited roles).

* InNameOnly: ''All Delighted People '''[[BlatantLies EP]]'''''. It's longer than some of his albums.
** Even more egregiously, the ''America'' '''single''' (with the b-side) is more than half the length of the entire ''Carrie & Lowell'' LP!

** "All of Me Wants All of You" ("on the sheet I see your horizon / all of me pressed onto you").

-->''I want to kill him, I want to cut his face, and when it's over, I know I'll feel okay.''

*** "Die Happy" (the only line, repeated 20+ times, is "I wanna die happy")
*** "Ursa Major" ("I wanna love You / I wanna love You / Until the Earth runs through it")
*** "Video Game" is an "I ''don't'' want" song (I don't wanna play / I don't wanna play / I don't wanna play your video game")

** "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is based on the short story of the same name by Creator/FlanneryOConnor, and "In The Devil's Territory" takes its title from a phrase in one of O'Connor's essays. Nearly 20 years later he returned to O'Connor for title inspiration, with "Everything That Rises" (referencing her story/collection "Everything That Rises Must Converge").

*** "The Ascension" (draws from both the biblical Ascension of Jesus and possibly--given the song's [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to ''Theatre/KingLear''--the conflict over who will "ascend" to the English throne in the play.)

Early in his career, he was most famous for his [[ConceptAlbum Concept Albums]] about the states of UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}} and Illinois -- featuring a mix of FolkMusic, BaroquePop, and PostRock -- and for claiming that he planned to release similar albums for the other 48 states of America (a project he eventually scrapped and admitted was a "promotional gimmick"). Nowadays, he's at least as well known for ''Music/CarrieAndLowell'' -- a deeply personal and highly acclaimed album commemorating the death of his absent mother -- and for his [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]]-nominated contributions to the soundtrack of the 2017 film ''Film/CallMeByYourName''.

But more than anything, he's an artist who refuses to be pigeonholed, and over the course of a two-decades-long-and-counting career, he's released albums of straight folk (''Seven Swans'', ''Carrie & Lowell'', ''A Beginner's Mind''), [[ElectronicMusic electronica]] (''Enjoy Your Rabbit'', ''The Age of Adz'', ''The Ascension''), [[{{Ambient}} ambient]] (''Aporia'', ''Convocations''), and [[ClassicalMusic contemporary classical music]] (''The B.Q.E.'', ''The Decalogue'', ''Reflections''), as well as a handful of projects which could perhaps best be described as "[[GenreMashup all of the above]]".

Most of these can be streamed in their entirety on Sufjan's [[http://sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com/ Bandcamp page]].

** ''Illinoise''.
*** "The Seer's Tower" (referring to the Willis Tower, once known as the Sears Tower).
** "Get Behind Me Santa", which is a riff of "Get Behind Me Satan" (both a phrase from the Bible and the title of a Music/TheWhiteStripes album).

* QueerRomance: The most common interpretation of "The Owl and the Tanager" is that it's about an unhealthy and/or emotionally painful gay relationship (the two main characters are explicitly male in the original iteration of the song, but the genders are left vague in the version that made it to the ''All Delighted People'' EP. Other examples from his catalog can be seen on the Ho Yay page.
* RadioFriendliness: Very low on the scale of radio support, due to his songs being too long / artsy / niche; "Chicago" is the rare exception to the rule, as it got significant airplay at some point in time.

* RearrangeTheSong: It's safe to say Sufjan is fond of this trope:

** A handful of traditional carols and hymns on his Christmas albums get this treatment.

** ''The Avalanche'' cover states that the album was "shamelessly compiled by Sufjan Stevens''.

* SelfHarm: Referenced extensively throughout ''Carrie & Lowell''.

* SpellingSong
** The refrain of "They Are Night Zombies!.." ("I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!", as well as the names of various ghost towns in the state.)

* WretchedHive: Detroit in "Oh Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head!".

** The [[TitleTrack Title Tracks]] from ''A Sun Came'', ''Seven Swans'', ''The Avalanche'', ''All Delighted People'', ''The Age of Adz'', ''Carrie & Lowell'', ''The Greatest Gift'', ''The Ascension'', and ''A Beginner's Mind'' all namedrop their respective song/album.

* AmbiguouslyBi: While he's never spoken publicly about his sexuality (and refuses to discuss his love life in interviews), his songs have been known to carry both homoerotic and heteroerotic undertones, although it's the homoerotic ones that tend to raise more eyebrows and stir more speculation.

* AuthorAppeal: Astrology, romantic/sexual encounters with ambiguously-gendered partners, and obscure historical/geographical [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]], to name a few. Sonically speaking, he also has an obvious affinity for lavish, woodwind-heavy, symphonic compositions. (See also CreatorThumbprint, below.)

* BreakupSong: "Enchanting Ghost", "I Walked", "Impossible Soul", "Dumb I Sound".

* EpicRocking: Many of his songs are over six minutes long; so far the longest is "Impossible Soul" at 25:35. Also deserving mention are "Djohariah" (17:03), "The Child with the Star on His Head" (15:30), "Earth" (15:10), "Year of the Horse" (13:19), "America" (12:30), "Christmas Unicorn" (12:28), "All Delighted People (original version)" (11:38), "My Rajneesh" (10:29), "You Are the Blood" (10:14), "Year of the Dragon" (9:27), "Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)" (9:24), "Do You Hear What I Hear?" (9:14), "Year of the Rat" (8:23), "Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!)" (8:21), "All Delighted People (classic rock version)" (8:07), "Age of Adz" (8:00)...

** "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is based on the short story of the same name by Creator/FlanneryOConnor, and "In The Devil's Territory" takes its title from a phrase in one of O'Connor's essays.

** "Eugene" off ''Carrie & Lowell''. In fact, if you take ''C&L'', add the outtakes from ''The Greatest Gift'', plus "Mystery of Love", "Tonya Harding", and "My Rajneesh" for good measure, you'll get ''Oregon''.

* LoveNostalgiaSong: "Visions of Gideon".
** "The Predatory Wasp...", subject to varying interpretations and escalated arguments, possibly qualifies.

* TitleTrack: ''A Sun Came'', ''Seven Swans'', ''The Avalanche'', ''All Delighted People'', ''The Age of Adz'', ''Carrie & Lowell'', ''The Greatest Gift'', ''The Ascension'', and ''A Beginner's Mind'' all have one. In fact, ''All Delighted People'' technically has two (an original version and a classic rock version).

** There is now [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vSh0JxfTptxcDkv50SY4xqDci_OHdrp3M_jWORb2KdIoun8DlUdt7MitDuaUSekZ5VrJo4gjRN_7DMf/pubhtml a list]] of ''every'' animal referenced in Sufjan's music.

** The initial release of his debut album ''A Sun Came'', in 2000, had a black-and-white photo of Sufjan staring straight at the camera. When it was reissued with a few bonus tracks in 2004, it featured a new cover with watercolor art of a toga-clad Sufjan fighting a dragon.

** ''Seven Swans'', ''The B.Q.E.'', ''Carrie and Lowell'' and ''Javelin'' are the only albums to run for less than an hour.

** ''Seven Swans'', ''The B.Q.E.'' and ''Carrie and Lowell'' are the only albums to run for less than an hour.

* '''''A Sun Came''''' (2000)

* FaceOnTheCover: The original album art for ''A Sun Came''; the re-release changed it to a fantasy illustration.

* ''Javelin'' (2023)

->''[[TheStinger ...and I shake the dirt out of my sandals as I run.''

->''[[TheStinger ...and I shake the dirt out]] [[LongTitle of my sandals as I run.]]''

* LongTitle: He was known for his ample use of this trope for naming songs at the start of his career.
** Some are longer than the songs they're attached to, such as "The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'". It's a two minute long instrumental.
** Several (such as the one above) double as [[EitherOrTitle Either/Or Titles]].
** The full album titles of ''Michigan'' and ''Illinois'' are ''Sufjan Stevens Presents... Greetings from Michigan, the Great Lake State'' and ''Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise'', respectively.

But more than anything, he's an artist who refuses to be pigeonholed, and over the course of a two-decades-long-and-counting career, he's released albums of straight folk (''Seven Swans'', ''Carrie & Lowell'', ''A Beginner's Mind''), [[ElectronicMusic electronica]] (''Enjoy Your Rabbit'', ''The Age of Adz'', ''The Ascension''), [[{{Ambient}} ambient]] (''Aporia'', ''Convocations''), and [[ClassicalMusic contemporary classical music]] (''The B.Q.E.'', ''The Decalogue''), as well as a handful of projects which could perhaps best be described as "[[GenreMashup all of the above]]".

* {{Instrumentals}}: About half of ''Illinois'', ''The Avalanche'', and ''Planetarium''; the entirety of ''Enjoy Your Rabbit'', ''Run Rabbit Run'', ''The [=BQE=]'', ''The Decalogue'', and ''Convocations''; all but one track on ''Aporia''; three tracks on ''Michigan''; and quite a few on his Christmas albums, too.

** In a somewhat unusual twist on this trope, he has also scored a number of ballets; ''The Decalogue'' is the only one so far to get an album release.

-->''In strange ideas\\

* SarcasmMode: Parts of "Impossible Soul" read this way:
-->''And you said something like: "All you want is all the world for yourself",\\

--> ''Sufjan, the panic inside, the murdering ghost that you cannot ignore''

-->Hey Shar?
-->''Yes, Sufjan?''
-->So, what do you believe in?
-->''Oh, a lot of things.''
-->Oh yeah, like what?
-->''Well, peace and justice for all...''

* SpellingSong: The refrain of "They Are Night Zombies!.." ("I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!", as well as the names of various ghost towns in the state.)

Early in his career, he was most famous for his albums about the states of UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}} and Illinois -- featuring a mix of FolkMusic, BaroquePop, and PostRock -- and for claiming that he planned to release similar albums for the other 48 states of America (a project he eventually scrapped and admitted was a "promotional gimmick"). Nowadays, he's at least as well known for ''Music/CarrieAndLowell'' -- a deeply personal and highly acclaimed album commemorating the death of his absent mother -- and for his [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]]-nominated contributions to the soundtrack of the 2017 film ''Film/CallMeByYourName''.

But more than anything, he's an artist who refuses to be pigeonholed, and over the course of a two-decades-long-and-counting career, he's released albums of straight folk (''Seven Swans'', ''Carrie & Lowell'', ''A Beginner's Mind''), [[ElectronicMusic electronica]] (''Enjoy Your Rabbit'', ''The Age of Adz'', ''The Ascension''), [[{{Ambient}} ambient]] (''Aporia'', ''Convocations''), and [[ClassicalMusic orchestral/contemporary classical music]] (''The B.Q.E.'', ''The Decalogue''), as well as a handful of projects (''A Sun Came'', ''All Delighted People'', ''Silver & Gold'', ''Planetarium'') which could perhaps best be described as "[[GenreMashup all of the above]]".

His musical collaborators include [[Music/{{Danielson}} Daniel Smith]], [[Music/TheNational Aaron and Bryce Dessner]], [[Music/StVincent Annie Clark]], [[Music/MyBrightestDiamond Shara Nova]], Music/MosesSumney, Angelo de Augustine, and the string quartet Osso. He's also one-third of the alternative hip-hop group Sisyphus, alongside Serengeti and Son Lux.

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Overlapping with ExcitedShowTitle; many of his song titles, notably "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!" and "Say Yes! To M!ch!gan!".

* ExcitedShowTitle: ''Come On, Feel the Illinoise!'', and many individual songs.
** The most excessive one is "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!"
** "Say Yes! To M!ch!gan!" deserves a mention as well.
** Used to differentiate the original release of ''A Sun Came'' from its reissue, which ''does'' have such a title.

* ''Reflections'' (2023)