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Rating: July 1, 1975; in front of the house, Mr. Stevens notices a newborn still in swaddling clothes inside a milk crate, and at that moment, he understands that his family, already in difficult economic conditions, will have to gather even more strength to welcome that little creature, whom he will name Sufjan, a mythical Armenian warrior.
Mr. Stevens could not know then that many years later, that child, raised as a son, would transfer all the love and affection received from the adoptive family into delicate musical compositions.
Greetings from Michigan is a small jewel to hold secretly, where melodies and soundscapes paint landscapes that live in a limbo between fantasy and reality, leaving us lost in a place with muted colors and blurred outlines.
As if Bacharach spent an evening with Stereolab (All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!), or Yo La Tengo improvised a jam session with Kings of Convenience (Holland), the fifteen tracks of this album surprise for their delicacy, embellished with arrangements of banjo and xylophone (Tahquamenon Falls) and dreamy openings of oboe and horn (Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head).
The result is a high-quality acoustic pop from an auteur where Sufjan, with a suspended voice, sometimes barely hinted at, leads us through liquid and abstract melodies, warm and throbbing.
His project seems rather ambitious; to dedicate an album to every American state, while waiting for the next 49 releases, let's enjoy the rivers and nature of Michigan.
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