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Thread: Sufjan Stevens

  1. #1

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    Default Sufjan Stevens



    Musician and multi-instrumentalist.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sufjan Stevens
    I grew up in Michigan and I eventually moved to New York to attend the New School for the writing program. I think I was always a musician even before I could play an instrument and I think I wanted to be a writer. Writing was more a sort of self-conscious desire through education, classes and reading. It was kind of a personal aspiration whereas music was my natural language from the beginning. It was an inherent inclination that I had. Writing was kind of a way to thwart music because I couldn’t really perceive of a way to be a musician as a vocation or practical way of life. I could see myself as a writer or journalist. But when I got here I started meeting lots of other musicians and they just coaxed me into playing and recording songs and participating in their shows. I did it kind of unwillingly at first and I kept saying ‘No, I’m a writer. I’ll do this because you invited me. But I’m working on my book and I want to get published and I want to teach.’ But eventually it took over and now I consider myself a failed writer.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sufjan Stevens
    I'm a very self-conscious person; I think we all are, but I'm especially not very comfortable in my body. I always feel really weird and awkward on the street or on the stage. It has nothing to do with circumstances; it's just an ongoing psychological state, like white noise.
    Sufjan Stevens is a magician who seems to be able to conjure up mystical and enchanting elements within simple melodies that become ever more complex by means of constant repetition, compositional layering (with rich harmonies) and ever-changing variations. The music usually starts naive and rather straight-forward, but tends to build up to a towering climax, like a train speeding towards a cliff, without ever sounding rushed, tense or hurried in any way. The travellers (me and you) have all the time in the world, observing details of the landscape through the window, hearing stories of local legends while we're at it, that become an intricate part of the journey. The music is a delicate balance between fragile folk music and complex classical music (of the minimalist kind). It is gentle and deeply human, as well as being rigid and mathematically structured at the same time. Sufjan's voice is flimsy, speaking to the listener on a very personal level, and most of the time it fits the music perfectly, particularly as a contrast to the grand sonic curtains that envelop it. His voice is, in fact, the only thing in his music that sounds limited in any way, for his creativity is simply mind-boggling.
    https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/sufjan-stevens

     
    Last edited by hag; 01-19-2020 at 01:24 PM.

  2. #2
    Jake's Avatar
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    SLI (?)

    I don't like his music
    Last edited by Jake; 02-26-2017 at 05:23 PM.

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    Seems introverted and definitely irrational. Likely Ne/Si valuing. I'm guessing SEI.

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    Feeling fucking fantastic golden's Avatar
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    I like his music and supposed he might be SEI based strictly on his work and a written interview.

    Would have to revisit the material to present any evidence for my impression.
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    Sufjan is a great example of the SEI-Fe cognition running on the dramatic 4w3 gestalt. SP/SXer

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    EII 4w5 Sp/Sx

    There's nothing sensation-driven about his music or his lyrics really and I'm surprised someone would pin him on the Fe/Ti axis at all.

    Rationality should be obvious given his penchant for creating long, complex and holistic albums that expand outwards from a central theme. Even though he may seem loose and easy-going, it's been made clear before that he is meticulous. Shara Nova referenced that when you sign up to work with him it's as though you are playing an instrument with your voice and lyrics in a pre-defined orchestra.

    Fi moralizing should also be clear from his work. A song like "John Wayne Gacy Jr." has this Dostoevsky-Raskolnikov sort of bent to it where the author delves deeply into the mind of a murderer and finds common ground with him while still reserving distance. A similar Fi can be seen in the song "The Upper Peninsula." Stevens puts himself in the shoes once again of someone to whom he has no relation and hugs close to what he perceives to be their emotions, and really this is just one example of many songs like this.

    A three wing also makes zero sense for someone who is not fame or image driven and is intensely private. He's reportedly been in a relationship for a long time and has made no public commentary on this. At this point he waits half a decade before releasing a new album, which clearly risks losing relevancy with a market. I also don't know how anyone who has listened deeply into The Age of Adz would not understand his five wing. Just like on his earliest albums but even more so, this is an album where connections are made with ancient mythology, and numerous philosophical themes emerge in reference to time and its nature to a subject. The final song on this album, "Impossible Soul," once again leads down a path of an abstract illumination that culminates in a moral question where the author regrets his immoral actions and how desire overcame him after creating an anthemic piece bristling with intuitionally driven statements and the desire for the author to wipe himself clean of his immorality.

    Finally, he's made several statements that could be indicative of inferior Se.

    "It's way more self-obsessed and leans towards masochism and solipsism and paranoia and anxiety. I'm a very self-conscious person, I think we all are, but I'm especially not very comfortable in my body. I always feel really weird and awkward on the street or on the stage. It has nothing to do with circumstances, it's just an ongoing psychological state, like white noise."



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    IEI..? brilliant whatever type..

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    * I’m special * flames's Avatar
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    SEI
    ・゚*✧ 𝓘 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒶𝒸𝒸𝑒𝓅𝓉 𝒶 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝓘 𝒹𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝑒𝓇𝓋𝑒 ✧*:・゚

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    Awwww he’s so good. Yep maybe SEI

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