YMMV / Carrie & Lowell

• Catharsis Factor: Performing the music live reportedly helped Stevens get over the self-destructive ways he fell into after his mother's death.
• Creator Breakdown: Writing and performing the album was a means for Stevens to cope with his mother's death.
• Fridge Horror: On first listen, it's easy to miss that "Drawn to the Blood" is about Domestic Abuse.
• Genius Bonus:
  • "Death with Dignity" is titled after the Oregon Death with Dignity Act on physician-assisted suicide.
  • "Blue Bucket of Gold" is titled after a legendary lost gold mine, as a metaphor for a mythical promise of an unattainble treasure (in this case, a mother's love).
  • 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.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The album adds context to some of Stevens's earlier songs; e.g. "Romulus", about a child ashamed of his Missing Mom, can now be assumed to have a Reality Subtext.
  • 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.
• Ho Yay:
  • "All of Me Wants All of You": The narrator refers to his lover as "Manelich" (a male name) and says this person "look[s] like Poseidon."
  • "Drawn to the Blood": "The strength of his arm / my lover caught me off guard."
  • "John My Beloved": Combines biblical imagery of Jesus and John (referred to in his eponymous gospel as "the disciple whom Jesus loved") with descriptions of a bar hookup and references to "the kiss on my cheek" and "my tongue on your chest."
• Narm: The line "You checked your texts while I masturbated" from "All of Me Wants All of You" comes off this way to some listeners, while others like the way it succinctly evokes a relationship with intimacy issues.

---