A Beginner's Mind - Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine: Review
Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine
are a pair of signees to Sufjan's Asthmatic Kitty Records label. After releasing two decades of his highly acclaimed indie folk records on the label, Sufjan signed Angelo for the release of his 2nd album and to open for him on tour. Now the duo are collaborating for the most recent in a string of experimentations, side projects and collaborations that Sufjan Stevens has undertaken in recent years.
Review By Lav:
Like most fans of indie music I went through a pretty big Sufjan phase in my life. Somewhere between The Age Of Adz and Carrie & Lowell I took a deep dive into his catalog and fell in love with a number of his records. While I haven't quite been head over heels for a lot of what Sufjan has done in the years since Carrie, there is an understanding that a lot of the projects are one time experiments that see him pursuing his creative passions outside the world of indie folk, indietronica and folktronica and probably shouldn't be scrutinized in the same way. Even among these there are highlights with Planetarium impressing sonically and conceptually and The Ascension rounding out as a pretty decent release in his catalog. Seeing that this was a collaborative project and that I didn't have a whole ton of experience with Angelo, I was a bit skeptical going into it. But then they released a pair of singles, and then more singles, and then even more singles and it all worked out pretty well when all is said and done.
The record gets off to a pretty great start containing a few of my favorite of the singles. Reach Out was the first track I really got hooked on. Like many of these tracks it's a reserved but very sweet acoustic ballad and has one of the catchiest hooks I think I've ever heard on a Sufjan song. It manages to have a triumphant emotional rise despite not really adding the level of elaborate instrumentation you may expect from a Sufjan crescendo, it's a great opener. Lady Macbeth In Chains follows this and is the first of many songs on the record that is heavily focused on a specific film in this case it's All About Ever. It's a wonderfully bright song given that the subject matter deals in a character aging out of her prime and celebrity while struggling to adapt. I love it's fragile but unbroken poise and the ever so slightly electronic conclusion that it reaches. The killer run continues with Back To Oz a breezy indie folk cut with chimey synths that give off a mythical energy. The slow and steady verses and bright fun hook are the perfect compliment to each other. This song introduces another theme of the album with a snidey undertone to the lyrics that makes it pretty clear everything isn't what it seems. Another hit.
From this point on the record is much more inconsistent but there are certainly still highlights. Beginner's Mind is a gentle piano ballad that's sung from the perspective of Patrick Swayze's character in Point Break, yes you read that right. It's incredibly charming and the lyrics are so funny in context. For just over two minutes this track is exactly what makes Sufjan so unique as a songwriter. Murder And Crime really commits to a chillingly reserved aesthetic while the lyrics dabble in some abstract conceptualizing of right and wrong. Sufjan sells the contemplativeness perfectly through his vocals with yet another instance of incredibly interesting songwriting.
The record goes on another run to close it all off starting with It's Your Own Body And Mind a song that certainly sounds like it has a more positive message but with Sufjan you can never really tell. The hook is a simple but effective cherry on top. Lost In The World isn't a Kanye/Bon Iver cover, which is fine I'm not mad about it what would give you that idea. Sufjan's angelic falsetto singing and the distant soft but driving drum that carries the track to its wordy hook is a great addition.
Fictional California is about the movie Bring It On, yes that is true it even reference the film by name. It's another slinky ballad with a bright hook and charming synth line that went really good alongside Back To Oz as a single. The only complaint I have is that it sounds like it belongs much more on the first half of the album. Cimmerian Shade is another killer single that features the softest vocal performance on the entire record and an instrumental that is warm and inviting to match. The gentle and mournful hook is a perfect compliment to the tracks sound and pulls it off well while still being so reserved. Finally the closing track Lacrime is a similarly reserved and very short closing track that hides a pretty gorgeous instrumental arrangement in it's hazy background. It is sort of a whimper to go out on but at the very least it sonically fits in to the record.
While the record doesn't necessarily have any huge duds or anything there are definitely moments where the indie folk sounds don't really do enough to compliment compelling songwriting, or vice verse. The Pillar Of Souls is much eerier than most of the songs on the records first half with Sufjan's whispered singing suddenly sounding a lot more downtrodden. The lyricism is more direct and dark as you'd expect from a track called The Pillar Of Souls and I read in an interview that it was inspired by one of the Hellraiser movies. It can be quite chilling at points but none of the refrains really stick with me. (This Is) The Thing fuses instrumental styles from other places on the record pairing prominent piano with some shimmery synth lines in the background. They highlight Sufjan's lyrics about where evil comes from and where it hides. I wouldn't call it a favorite of mine but it's certainly an interesting song.
You Give Death A Bad Name is a track I wasn't crazy about when I first heard it as a single and it still doesn't do a ton for me, The wandering structure of the track had the potential to be interesting but I think it just comes off feeling kind of disjointed and weirdly back heavy. My least favorite song of the bunch is still Olympus a slow developing intimate folk cut that sounds out of its era and a bit out of its element on the record. The refrains are very forgettable and even though I appreciate the Greek mythological imagery Suf conjures up, the instrumental sort of plods along in a way that I find super boring.
Sufjan and Angelo conjure up a number of instrumentally sweet and thematically interesting indie folk cuts on this record. While the sound palette is occasionally limited at least in its primary instrumentation it does provide a ton of creative song topics within the overarching theme of film related imagery. The duo's instrumental virtuosity and songwriting experience elevate these tracks both as individual songs and as an overall record experience and the results are an impressive if occasionally predictable bunch. 7.5/10
This cover is a lot. It reminds me of a coloring book with the color palette and the simple line quality. I'm not very impressed with it and think it's a little mediocre. The text only adds to that and seems to date it to the early 2000's. The subject is well rendered and maybe would have been more successful if modernized a bit. 4/10
For more indie folk check out my review of LUMP's Animal here
