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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.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid) (00:00)
It's the same outside
Driving to the riverside
I pretend to cry
Even if I cried alone
I forgot the start
Use my hands to use my heart
Even if I died alone
Even if I died alone
Since the first of June
Lost my job
And lost my room
I pretend to try
Even if I tried alone
I forgot the part
Use my hands to use my heart
Even if I died alone
Even if I died alone
Even if I died alone
Even if I died alone
Even if I died
04 Say Yes! To M!ch!gan! (00:00)
Demonstrate I was
raised from the start
By a priest and
the maid on the part.
Still know what
to wear on my back:
Michigan!
Ponshewaing!
Cadillac!
If I ever meant to go away
I was raised, I was reaised
In the place, in the place.
Still I often think of going back
To the farms, to the farms
Golden arms, golden arms
start to remind me.
If the lakes took
the place of the sea.
If the cars drove
themselves, way to be!
Opposite the trains moving in
Rivers run interstate, Michigan!
Still I never meant to go away
I was raised, I was raised
In the place, in the place.
Still I often think of going back
To the farms, to the farms
Golden arms, golden arms.
Tried to change the
Made in Michigan
I was raised, I was raised
In the place, in the place,
part to remind me
05 The Upper Peninsula (00:00)
I live in America
With a pair of Payless shoes
The upper penisula
And the television news
And I've seen my wife
At the K-Mart
In strange ideas
We live apart
I live in a trailer home
With a snow mobile, my car
The window is broken out
And the interstate is far
I drove all night
To find my child
In strange ideas
He's been revived
In strange ideas
In stranger times
I've no idea
What's right sometimes
I lost my mind
I lost my life
I lost my job
I lost my wife
07 Holland (00:00)
All the time we spent in bed
Counting miles before we set
Fall in love and fall apart
Things will end before they start
Sleeping on Lake Michigan
Factories and marching bands
Lose our clothes in summer time
Lose ourselves to lose our minds
In the summer heat, I might
09 Romulus (00:00)
Once when our mother called
She had a voice of last year's cough
We passed around the phone
Sharing a word without growing up
When my turn came
I was ashamed
When my turn came
I was ashamed
Once when we moved away
She came to Romulus for a day
Her Chevrolet broke down
We prayed it never be fixed or be found
We touched her hair
We touched her hair
We touched her hair
We touched her hair
When she had her last child
Once when she had some boyfriend somewhile
She moved away quite far
Our Grampa bought us a new VCR
We watched it all night
We grew up in spite of it
We watched it all night
We grew up in spite of it
We saw her once last fall
Our Grampa died in a hospital gown
She didn't seem to care
She smoked in her room and coloured her hair
I was ashamed
I was ashamed of her
I was ashamed
I was ashamed of her
I was ashamed
Of her
13 Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?) (00:00)
16 Marching Band (00:00)
One dark day the trees began a trumpet sound,
trumpet sound
We sat listening patiently, the sky was near
and i felt the trembling motion
we ran out to see the future, from the ground
from the ground
from the ground
from the ground
people died and people risen everywhere
We held hands and made a circle
quietly from the ground
quietly from the ground
We returned and set the table, by the door
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