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(Asthmatic Kitty)Deceptively simple songs burst into epic passages and walls of sound, with lyrical twists to match, in a remarkable album released as its creator recovers from an autoimmune conditionIn a music world that frequently seems to be predicated on more of the same – the algorithms that direct you to stuff that sounds like stuff you already like, the narrow perameters of genre-specific playlists, the risk-aversion of record labels and established artists alike – there’s something tremendously appealing about the fact that you never quite know what a Sufjan Stevens album is going to sound like. Javelin arrives a few months after his last album, Reflections, a collection of technically challenging instrumental piano duo pieces written as the score to a ballet, reflecting Stevens’ classical training. Although should that sound dauntingly highbrow, it’s worth noting that the concluding piece was titled And I Shall Come to You Like a Stormtrooper in Drag Serving Imperial Realness.That was, in turn, preceded by: A Beginner’s Mind (broadly acoustic and based on films ranging from All About Eve to Hellraiser III); the meditation-focused Convocations (a five-volume set of beatless “meditation music”); The Ascension (electronic pop, inspired by Ariana Grande); Music for Insomnia (abstract synth-heavy instrumentals recorded with his stepfather); The Decalogue (another ballet soundtrack, this time for solo piano); Planetarium (a grandiose space-themed concept album made with the National’s Bryce Dessner and composer Nico Muhly); and Carrie and Lowell, a sparse, wracked, grief-stricken meditation on the death of Stevens’ mother. If that sounds like dilettantism, it never feels like it in reality. He’s clearly multi-talented and possessed of an unfailing melodic ability, but his greatest musical skill may lie in always seeming completely immersed in whatever project he’s pursuing, even Christmas songs: he has released nearly five hours of the latter, displaying a level of devotion to seasonal good cheer that would give Santa pause. Continue reading...