Tickle Me Sufjan

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From an excerpt of an interview with Sufjan here:

"…[W]hat’s next for you in terms of your own music and that of Asthmatic Kitty?

Sufjan: Well, I’m trying a lot of new material on this tour and they’re kind of long-form songs—meandering, works in progress, but I’m hoping that they’ll eventually find themselves on an album. So I think that all of that negative view of the state of affairs of the music industry and the demise of the LP and all this—I feel like that’s sort of old news for me. It’s a recent crisis but one I feel that I’m getting around. I think that a lot of the new material that I’m working on is inspiring enough to get me to record it and maybe have a new record out next year.

And you’re freeing yourself of any conceptual restraints?

Sufjan: Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll have any success doing that because it’s how I’ve worked for so long but generally, I’m trying to dissuade any kind of conceptual framework and just write music, love songs, pop songs, and just forget all that conceptual mess…"

The important bit to take not of there is that he thinks he will "maybe have a record out next year" of course, not necessarily all the hand-wringing he's engaged in as of late. Yay new album! My favorite album of his is Seven Swans which is his least conceptual album, so this all sounds fine to me. I don't much give a shit about his 50 States project (an album for every state). And the new songs that he was playing in concert when I saw him earlier this month (here and here) are totally fantastic. Yay!
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