History YMMV / SufjanStevens

** "Which Sufjan album is his best", with nearly every single one of his main releases from ''Michigan'' onward inspiring a near equal number of fervent arguments from fans. With critics the competition is mainly between ''Music/{{Illinois}}'' and ''Music/CarrieAndLowell'', [[http://www.metacritic.com/person/sufjan-stevens which are currently tied on Metacritic]] (with the ''C&L'' LiveAlbum actually beating them both by a single point).

** "Which Sufjan album is his best", with absolutely every single one of his main releases in between ''Michigan'' and ''Carrie & Lowell'' inspiring a near equal number of fervent arguments from fans. With critics the competition is mainly between ''Music/{{Illinois}}'' and ''Music/CarrieAndLowell'', [[http://www.metacritic.com/person/sufjan-stevens which are currently tied on Metacritic]] (with the ''C&L'' LiveAlbum actually beating them both by a single point).

*** The second group is sometimes further subdivided between those who read his body of work as AmbiguouslyBi, with romantic songs addressed to both men and women, and those who believe just about everything he writes is about a man unless there's explicit evidence to the contrary. (Historically Sufjan has refrained from discussing his sexuality or relationships publicly, rendering WordOfGod irrelevant on this subject. This changed in 2023, when he publicly dedicated his album ''Javelin'' to the memory of his former partner, Evans Richardson.)

** "Chicago" also plays during the TitleSequence in the Creator/RyanMurphy Netflix series ''Series/ThePolitician'', and in an episode of ''Series/TheBear''.

*** The second group is sometimes further subdivided between those who read his body of work as AmbiguouslyBi, with romantic songs addressed to both men and women, and those who believe just about everything he writes is about a man unless there's explicit evidence to the contrary. (As mentioned elsewhere, Sufjan himself has never discussed his sexuality publicly, so WordOfGod doesn't apply.)

** "Chicago" also plays during the TitleSequence in the Creator/RyanMurphy Netflix series ''Series/ThePolitician'', and will likely come to be associated with the show for a new generation of fans.

* LGBTFanbase: He has a rather sizeable one, thanks to the homoerotic content of some of his songs and his own ambiguous sexuality. (Him contributing music for ''Film/CallMeByYourName'' in 2017 didn't hurt, either.) As an article on Jezebel put it:

** While intended to describe actual side effects of the eponymous anxiety medication, it's hard not to chuckle at the verse in "Ativan" when Suf sings "I shit my pants and wet the bed".

* ObscurePopularity: Sufjan has been a critical favorite since the mid-2000s, has at least two albums which are widely considered to be among the best of their respective years/decades, boasts admirers among some of the biggest names in popular music, has played at the Oscars, and has a large and extremely devoted fanbase. Nevertheless, he's far from a household name, and even those who ''do'' know of him often only recognize him as the 50 States Project guy (see NeverLiveItDown) or the artist whose song Creator/TimotheeChalamet cries to at the end of ''Call Me by Your Name''. However, he seems to prefer it this way. He's remained on his self-managed record label for his entire career, has expressed disinterest in doing collaborations with big-name stars, and reportedly hated the whole Oscars night experience.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Some have not been receptive towards the drastic sound change exhibited on ''The Age of Adz'' and, now, ''The Ascension''. In general, his synth-heavy endeavors inspire a lot of backlash from those who either don't know he's been releasing electronic music since ''before'' most of his folksy albums came out or do know but would prefer he stick to the acoustic stuff.

* MorePopularSpinOff: Sufjan started his music career playing various instruments for the folk rock band Marzuki (named after his brother, who was not in the band) in TheNineties. The group released two albums and garnered a decent local following in Michigan, with their last release in '98. Sufjan put out his first solo album two years later, and within five years had become a major name in indie music. Meanwhile few people nowadays have ever heard of Marzuki, and those who have tend to find the band via the Sufjan connection anyway.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
** ''The Age of Adz'' and ''Carrie & Lowell'' were both inspired by real-life episodes in Stevens' life. (See CreatorBreakdown on the Trivia tab.)
** The decision to make ''The Ascension'' an electronica album was influenced by the fact that the building where Sufjan rented a studio was under renovation and most of his recording equipment was packed away.
** ''Convocations'' was written as a way of processing both his father's recent death and the [[UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic COVID-19 lockdown]].

* CreatorBreakdown:
** ''The Age of Adz'' happened as a result of a depression / neural illness that Stevens suffered from, which explains the album's atmosphere of what Stevens described as "hysterical melodrama".
** Writing and performing ''Carrie & Lowell'' was a means for Stevens to cope with his mother's death.

** ''The Age of Adz'' and ''Carrie & Lowell'' were both inspired by real-life episodes in Stevens' life. (See CreatorBreakdown, above.)

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: See CreatorBreakdown, above.

*** In "Should Have Known Better", "Rose of Aaron's beard" refers simultaneously to the Oregon town of Roseburg, founded by one Aaron Rose, and to Aaron's Beard, a flower containing chemicals used to manufacture antidepressants. "The breakers in the bar" refers to the waves at the Columbia River Bar.
*** "Tillamook Burn" was a series of forest fires in the first half of the 20th century.

** In "Fourth of July" Sufjan references the "Tillamook burn", a real-life series of Oregon wildfires in the early and mid-20th century. In 2020 the Tillamook forest was once again ravaged by forest fires.

* LGBTFanbase: He has a rather sizeable one, thanks to the homoerotic content of some of his songs and his own ambiguous sexuality. (Him scoring ''Film/CallMeByYourName'' in 2017 didn't hurt, either.) As an article on Jezebel put it:
--> There is a specific queer loneliness in the music of Sufjan Stevens that has made him a central cultural figure to a generation of queer people — cis gay men, especially — with an affinity for melancholy.
** Suf released the "Love Yourself" single--complete with rainbow album art!--explicitly to coincide with Pride Month 2019 (and donated a portion of the proceeds to organizations that assist LGBTQ youth).

*** Ditto "Oh to see without my eyes" from "Mystery of Love", which became a bonafide meme even outside the Sufjan fandom due to the song's association with the film.
** [[https://me.me/i/sufjan-stevens-invites-uou-to-come-feel-me-nose-11943758 "Sufjan Stevens Invites You to Come Feel Me Nose"]] (Only one of many reworkings of the ''Illinois'' cover.)

** A whole subgenre of Sufjan memes concerns [[NeverLiveItDown his failure to finish]] the Fifty States project, to the point that there are even t-shirts for sale demanding he release the remaining 48. Many fans have decided to fill in the gaps by making up their own parody tracklists or even recording new state-based songs.

* NarmCharm: Sufjan has made an art of combining deliberately narm-y elements (baroque musical compositions, odd instruments, obsessively rigorous album concepts, intentionally ridiculous song and album titles, elaborate stage costumes...) with his disarmingly sincere--and just plain brilliant--songwriting. The juxtaposition is a big part of his appeal for many fans.

* CreatorBacklash: Sufjan has been very critical of his performance at the 2018 Oscars, describing feeling "traumatized" and completely out of place in the Hollywood awards world.
* CreatorBreakdown:
** ''The Age of Adz'' happened as a result of a depression / neural illness that Stevens suffered from, which explains the album's atmosphere of what Stevens described as "hysterical melodrama".
** ''Carrie & Lowell'' was a means for Stevens to cope with his mother's death.
** ''Convocations'' was inspired by Stevens' father Rasjid's passing in September 2020, as well as the anxiety and isolation felt during the [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19 quarantine]].

-->Intention finishes its work once a piece is created. I believe in a very democratic reader-response to art, that everyone has a unique experience and, though they may not always be valuable, or believable, or accurate, they’re all viable.

** "Is this song gay or about God?" is often asked by fans as a good-natured joke, acknowledging that both themes are common in Sufjan's music, but there is occasionally some tension between parts of the fanbase who prefer to interpret Sufjan's songs in a religious light and those more inclined to a homoerotic, and more secular, reading. There can also be a generational/fandom seniority element to this conflict, as Sufjan's older music tended to be more explicitly religious, while his newer material (especially post-''Call Me By Your Name'') leans more overtly into homoeroticism.