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Sufjan Stevens knows a thing or two more than the devil, but in this album, he allows himself a reflective break, seeking in biblical themes that serenity that illuminates all his works.
In "All The Trees Of The Field Will Clap Their Hands" a banjo accompanies with a gentle country a reassuring voice, which is enchanted at the end by an almost angelic female choir. A folk all about home, family, church, and nature; in "In The Devil's Territory" the strings rapidly and brightly arpeggiate and the theremin creates a suspended atmosphere in anticipation of "Sister", where the drums come into play, albeit as accompaniment, and an electric guitar, eventually joined by a gentle choir, which tells us the story in a long intro that builds until Sufjan recounts it in words.
In "We Won't Need Legs To Stand" the keyboard is a stairway to heaven and quiet moans push you towards the goal, which is reached with the last three songs. In "He Woke Me Up Again" the banjo and a clerical keyboard invoke the final hallelujah, like in a rural gospel, also revisited in "The Transfiguration", where a polyinstrumental and choral climax leads us, as mentioned at the beginning, to an emotional clap-handing. In the track from which the album takes its name, the piano marks an elevated song ending, the swans are angels and Lake Michigan is their natural habitat.
Sufjan can afford to say it: "I'll show you the sky".
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