Songs For Your Day

I’m a big list person, so forgive the potentially cheesy tendency to list my favorite albums this year. They will not be in any specific order, just ten equally great albums.

With that said, here it goes.

#10: Sufjan Stevens, “The BQE”

Everyone who knows me has to be aware that I am a total sucker for Sufjan, ever since Seven Swans. As a musical artist he seeks to master his craft wherever it may take him. It’s taken him to some pretty unique places: The Chinese Zodiac, The Bible, as well as the great states of Illinois and Michigan. Then his inspiration took him to a bridge, which many New Yorkers will instantly complain about. The BQE is narrow, windy, and often crowded.  ”The BQE” Sufjan’s latest musical effort weaved it’s way through me from the instant “Prelude on the Esplanade” commenced. The music tapers much like the confines of the rustic bridge it illustrates, following many a morning commuters’ speedometers, often jolting to sudden halts and then slowly creeping its way forward until the “Self-Organizing Emergent Patterns” commences! Sufjan succeeds in making every morning commute a triumphant adventure, but even more so, he reached a new level of his art. It makes me sad that so many indie fans simply because he abandoned his State-themed venture. This may not be an album that can be marketed to his normal crowd, but it is most certainly an opus that should not go unnoticed.