Illinois (album)
Encyclopedia
Illinois is a 2005 concept album
by American indie folk
songwriter Sufjan Stevens
. His fifth studio album, Illinois features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Illinois
. The album is Stevens' second based on a U.S. state—part of a planned series of fifty that began with the 2003 album Michigan
and that Stevens has since acknowledged was a gag.
Stevens recorded the album using low-fidelity
methods and a variety of instruments between late 2004 and early 2005 at multiple venues in New York City, where he also produced the album. The artwork and lyrics explore the history, culture, art, and geography of the state—Stevens developed them after analyzing criminal, literary, and historical documents. Following a July 4, 2005, release date, Stevens promoted Illinois with a world tour.
Critics praised the album for its well-written lyrics and complex orchestrations; in particular, reviewers noted Stevens' progress as a songwriter since the release of Michigan. Illinois was named the best-reviewed album of 2005 by review aggregator Metacritic
, and was included on several reviewers' "best of the decade" lists—including those of Paste
, National Public Radio, and Rolling Stone
. The album amounted to Stevens' greatest public success to date: it was his first to place on the Billboard 200, and it topped the Billboard list of "Heatseekers Albums". The varied instrumentation and experimental songwriting on the album invoked comparisons to work by Steve Reich
, Neil Young
, and The Cure
. Besides numerous references to Illinois history, geography, and attractions, Stevens continued a theme of his songwriting career by including multiple references to his Christian faith.
Stevens launched his 50-state project in 2003 with the album Michigan
and chose to focus on Illinois with this recording because "it wasn't a great leap", and he liked the state because he considered it the "center of gravity" for the American Midwest. Before creating the album, Stevens read literature by Illinois authors Saul Bellow
and Carl Sandburg
, and studied immigration records and history books for the state—he made the deliberate decision to avoid current events and focused on historical themes. He also took trips through several locations in Illinois and asked friends and members of Internet chat rooms for anecdotes about their experiences in the state. Although he began work in 2004 on Oregon
-themed songs and briefly considered releasing a Rhode Island
7", Stevens has since not released another album focused on a state, saying in a November 2009 interview with Paste
that "the whole premise was such a joke," and telling Andrew Purcell of The Guardian
in October 2009 "I have no qualms about admitting [the fifty states project] was a promotional gimmick." An Arkansas-related song was released through NPR
as "The Lord God Bird" and material intended for New Jersey
and New York
became The BQE.
All of the songs on Illinois were written, recorded, engineered
, and produced
by Stevens, with most of the material being recorded at The Buddy Project studio in Astoria, Queens
, and in Stevens' Brooklyn
apartment. As with his previous albums, Stevens recorded in various locations, with additional piano recorded in St. Paul's Church in Brooklyn; strings and vocals performed in collaborators' apartments; electronic organ recorded in the New Jerusalem Recreational Room in Clarksboro, New Jersey
; and vibraphone played at Carroll Music Studios in New York City. Stevens mostly created the album without collaboration, focusing on the writing, performance, and technical creation of the album by himself: "I was pretty nearsighted in the construction of Illinois. I spent a lot of time alone, a few months in isolation working on my own and in the studio. I let things germinate and cultivate independently, without thinking about an audience or a live show at all."
Stevens employed low-fidelity recording equipment, which allowed him to retain creative control and keep costs low on recording Illinois. Typically, his process involved recording to 32 kHz 8-track tape using inexpensive microphones such as the Shure SM57 and AKG C1000
. He then employed Pro Tools
for mixing and other production tasks.
After consulting with Michael Kaufmann and Lowell Brams of Asthmatic Kitty
about the amount of material he had recorded, Stevens decided against a double album
, saying that would be "arrogant". In 2006, several tracks recorded during these sessions were sent to Seattle-based musician and producer James McAllister for additional instrumentation and production, and were released in 2006 on the follow-up album The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album. Among these outtakes are three separate recordings of the song "Chicago"—including the "Multiple Personality Disorder Version", which was produced during a subsequent tour. The "Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version" of the song was supposed to appear on the Illinois album, but was changed at the last minute.
Illinois was released on July 4, 2005, through Rough Trade Records
in Europe and was distributed domestically by Asthmatic Kitty Records starting July 5, 2005. Although he initially had no plans to perform this material live, less than two weeks after the release of Illinois, Stevens embarked on a North American tour to promote the album, performing with a string section of eight to ten members named the Illinoisemakers. He deliberately chose to avoid television as a promotional tool and focused on the tour performances themselves. He was supported on some dates by opening acts Liz Janes (who is also signed to Asthmatic Kitty) and Laura Veirs
as well as Illinois collaborator Shara Worden
's solo project My Brightest Diamond
. He toured in support of the album again from September through November 2006, this time including dates in several European cities. During the 2006 dates, Stevens and his band transitioned from wearing University of Illinois-themed outfits to butterfly suits and bird wings.
to contemporary classical
, even show tunes and jazz
-based time signature
s. The lyrics and their rich thematic elements have been noted for their literary quality, earning comparisons to Ralph Waldo Emerson
, Henry David Thoreau
, William Carlos Williams
, and Walt Whitman
.
, Vince Guaraldi
, the Danielson Famile
, Neil Young
, Nick Drake
, and Death Cab for Cutie
. Stevens' use of large orchestra
l arrangement
s in his music—much of it played by himself through the use of multi-track recording—has been noted by several reviewers. Rolling Stone
summarized the musical influences of Illinois, saying "the music draws from high school marching band
s, show tunes and ambient
electronics; we can suspect Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians
is an oft-played record in the Stevens household, since he loves to echo it in his long instrumental passages." A review in The A.V. Club
referred to some of the vocal work as "regressively twee communalism", but found Stevens' music overall to be "highly developed". The song "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" uses a saxophone
part from "Close to Me" by The Cure
.
The creation of Illinois marked a shift in Stevens' emphasis on songwriting and studio work toward live performance and more abstract concepts of motion and sound—subsequent tours and albums emphasized electronic music and modern dance over the indie folk material on Michigan and Illinois. He has ceased writing songs about individual characters with straightforward narratives or concept albums and briefly considered quitting the music business entirely after creating and promoting this album. He also found that the way in which he listened to music had changed after producing Illinois:
Stevens is a classically trained oboist
and his knowledge of classical
and baroque music
influenced many of his arrangements. Stevens himself has noted the influence of composers Igor Stravinsky
, Sergei Rachmaninoff
, and Edvard Grieg
; along with contemporary composers
Terry Riley
, Steve Reich
, and Philip Glass
. The music on this album was written to be grandiose, to match the history of the territory. Stevens used time signature
changes in the composition of Illinois for dynamic effect—for instance, "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" begins with a 5/4 time signature and then changes to a standard 4/4 later in the song.
, where several persons reported seeing a large triangular object with three lights flying at night. "Come on! Feel the Illinoise!" makes reference to the World's Columbian Exposition
, which took place in Chicago in 1893.
"John Wayne Gacy, Jr." documents the story of the 1970s Chicago-based serial killer of the same name
. Several lyrics make explicit references to events in his life: "[w]hen the swingset hit his head" refers to event in Gacy's childhood, when a swing hit his head and caused a blood clot in his brain; "He dressed up like a clown for them / with his face paint white and red" alludes to the nickname given to Gacy—the "Killer Clown"; and "He put a cloth on their lips / Quiet hands, quiet kiss on the mouth" references Gacy's use of chloroform
to subdue and molest his victims. The song ends with the narrator turning inward with the lyrics: "And in my best behavior, I am really just like him / Look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid." Stevens stated in a 2009 interview with Paste
that "we're all capable of what [Gacy] did."
"Casimir Pulaski Day" interweaves a personal story with the state holiday Casimir Pulaski Day
. "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" makes references to Superman
, whose fictional hometown of Metropolis
was partially modeled after Chicago (the town of Metropolis, Illinois
has also capitalized on this association). Jessica Hooper of the Chicago Reader noted that Ray Middleton
—who was the first actor to play the comic book superhero—was also born in Chicago. "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!" makes references to ghost towns of Illinois. Stevens relates experiences from a summer camp he went to as a child in Michigan
for "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!", but moved the locale to Illinois for the sake of the album. The track "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" includes references to Decatur, Illinois
, but Stevens stated the track also acted as "an exercise in rhyme schemes". Some references to Decatur included in the song were alligator sightings in the area, the equipment manufacturer Caterpillar
, and a flood that exhumed a graveyard of soldiers from the Civil War
.
Other allusions to the state's people, places, and events include the Black Hawk War
, author Carl Sandburg
, Stephen A. Douglas
, Abraham Lincoln
, the Sangamon River
, the Chicago Cubs
, the Sears Tower dubbed "Seer's Tower" (now called Willis Tower), and the localities of Jacksonville
, Peoria
, Metropolis
, Savanna
Caledonia
, Secor
, Magnolia
, Kankakee
, Evansville
, and the several locations named Centerville, Illinois. During the tour following the release of Illinois, Stevens' band wore cheerleader outfits based on those of the University of Illinois.
and the Bible
. As a Christian musician, he has written and recorded music about spiritual themes throughout his career—particularly on the 2004 album Seven Swans
—and prefers to talk about religious topics through song rather than directly in interviews or public statements. The song "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" includes the line "It's the great I Am"—taken from the response
God gave when Moses
asked for his name in the Book of Exodus . "Casimir Pulaski Day" describes the death of a girlfriend due to bone cancer, and the narrator questions God in the process. More abstract allusions appear in "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts", which utilizes Superman as a Christ figure and "The Seer's Tower", which references the Book of Revelation
and the Second Coming of Christ. Songs which were not written with an explicit theological focus—such as "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."—also feature religious themes such as sin and redemption.
and Mary Todd Lincoln
, the Sears Tower, and Black Hawk
. The album cover reads, "Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise!" as a wordplay on the common mispronunciation of the state's name as "ill-i-NOYZ" and a reference to the Slade
song "Cum On Feel the Noize
" made famous by the metal band Quiet Riot
. The text on the cover caused some confusion over the actual title of the album—it is officially titled Illinois, as opposed to Come on Feel the Illinoise or Illinoise. Paste
listed Illinois as having the seventh best album art of the decade 2000–2009. The album also won the PLUG Independent Music Award
for Album Art/Packaging of the Year in 2006.
Shortly after the release of the album, reports arose that DC Comics
had issued a cease and desist letter to Asthmatic Kitty because of the depiction of Superman
on the cover. However, on October 4, 2005, Asthmatic Kitty announced that there had been no cease and desist letter; the record company's own lawyers had warned about the copyright infringement. On June 30, 2005, Asthmatic Kitty's distributor Secretly Canadian
asked its retailers not to sell the album; however, it was not recalled. On July 5, the distributor told its retailers to go ahead and sell their copies, as DC Comics agreed to allow Asthmatic Kitty to sell the copies of the album that were already manufactured, but the image was removed from subsequent pressings. Soon after it was made public that the cover would be changed, copies of the album featuring Superman were sold for as high as $75 on eBay
. On the vinyl edition released on November 22, 2005, Superman's image is covered by a balloon sticker. The image of the balloon sticker was also used on the cover of the Compact Disc and later printings of the double vinyl release. Stevens himself was surprised by the development and also had to pay a fee for referencing lyrics from Woody Guthrie
's folk anthem "This Land Is Your Land
" in the track "No Man's Land", which was later released on The Avalanche.
and received several awards from critics.
compiled 40 critic reviews of Illinois, and gave the album a 90/100 ("Universal Acclaim"), making it the best-reviewed album of 2005. Andy Battaglia of The A.V. Club
said that Stevens "has grown into one of the best song-makers in indie rock" with the album. Tim Jonze of NME
called Illinois "a brainy little fucker" and described Stevens as "prolific, intelligent and—most importantly—brimming with heart-wrenching melodies." Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone
responded favorably to the album, praising the "over-the-top arrangements" and Stevens' "breathy, gentle voice". Sheffield criticized "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.", stating that it "symbolizes nothing about American life except the existence of creative-writing workshops", but elsewhere praised the personal nature of songs such as "Chicago" and "Casimir Pulaski Day". Michael Metivier of PopMatters
described "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." as "horrifying, tragic, and deeply sad without proselytizing." Amanda Petrusich of Pitchfork Media
described Illinois as "strange and lush, as excessive and challenging as its giant, gushing song titles." Dave Simpson of The Guardian
echoed this sentiment by saying that the music sounds like "The Polyphonic Spree
produced by Brian Eno
."
Jesse Jarnow of Paste praised the playful nature of Illinois, commenting that it had "sing-song" melodies and "jaunty" orchestrations. Jarnow also noted ironic lyrics, citing a line from "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!": "I can't explain the state I'm in..." after a section of the song that references many Illinois landmarks. Q
called Illinois a "sizeable step forward" from Michigan, and said Stevens' love for the state of Illinois is infectious. Catherine Lewis of the Washington Post responded favorably to the album, stating that it has well-written lyrics, comparing Stevens' rhyming to that of Stephin Merritt
. Lewis cited "Casimir Pulaski Day" as one of the most memorable songs of the album.
. Finally, Paste listed Stevens as one of their "100 Best Living Songwriters" in 2006, primarily due to the writing on Michigan and Illinois.
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
by American indie folk
Indie folk
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s from singer/songwriters in the indie rock community showing heavy influences from folk music scenes of the 50s, 60s and early 70s, country music, and indie rock. A few early artists included Lou Barlow, Beck, Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith...
songwriter Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...
. His fifth studio album, Illinois features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. The album is Stevens' second based on a U.S. state—part of a planned series of fifty that began with the 2003 album Michigan
Michigan (album)
Bonus tracks included on the double-disc vinyl release:#"Marching Band" – 3:41#"Niagara Falls" – 2:22#"Pickerel Lake" – 3:11#"Presidents and Magistrates" – 4:16#"Vito's Ordination Song" – 5:25#"Wolverine" – 2:10...
and that Stevens has since acknowledged was a gag.
Stevens recorded the album using low-fidelity
Low fidelity
Low fidelity or lo-fi describes a sound recording which contains technical flaws such as distortion, hum, or background noise, or limited frequency response...
methods and a variety of instruments between late 2004 and early 2005 at multiple venues in New York City, where he also produced the album. The artwork and lyrics explore the history, culture, art, and geography of the state—Stevens developed them after analyzing criminal, literary, and historical documents. Following a July 4, 2005, release date, Stevens promoted Illinois with a world tour.
Critics praised the album for its well-written lyrics and complex orchestrations; in particular, reviewers noted Stevens' progress as a songwriter since the release of Michigan. Illinois was named the best-reviewed album of 2005 by review aggregator Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, and was included on several reviewers' "best of the decade" lists—including those of Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
, National Public Radio, and Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
. The album amounted to Stevens' greatest public success to date: it was his first to place on the Billboard 200, and it topped the Billboard list of "Heatseekers Albums". The varied instrumentation and experimental songwriting on the album invoked comparisons to work by Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, and The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
. Besides numerous references to Illinois history, geography, and attractions, Stevens continued a theme of his songwriting career by including multiple references to his Christian faith.
Background, recording, and tour
Michigan (album)
Bonus tracks included on the double-disc vinyl release:#"Marching Band" – 3:41#"Niagara Falls" – 2:22#"Pickerel Lake" – 3:11#"Presidents and Magistrates" – 4:16#"Vito's Ordination Song" – 5:25#"Wolverine" – 2:10...
and chose to focus on Illinois with this recording because "it wasn't a great leap", and he liked the state because he considered it the "center of gravity" for the American Midwest. Before creating the album, Stevens read literature by Illinois authors Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
and Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
, and studied immigration records and history books for the state—he made the deliberate decision to avoid current events and focused on historical themes. He also took trips through several locations in Illinois and asked friends and members of Internet chat rooms for anecdotes about their experiences in the state. Although he began work in 2004 on Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
-themed songs and briefly considered releasing a Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
7", Stevens has since not released another album focused on a state, saying in a November 2009 interview with Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
that "the whole premise was such a joke," and telling Andrew Purcell of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in October 2009 "I have no qualms about admitting [the fifty states project] was a promotional gimmick." An Arkansas-related song was released through NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
as "The Lord God Bird" and material intended for New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
became The BQE.
All of the songs on Illinois were written, recorded, engineered
Audio engineering
An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, and produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Stevens, with most of the material being recorded at The Buddy Project studio in Astoria, Queens
Astoria, Queens
Astoria is a neighborhood in the northwestern corner of the borough of Queens in New York City. Located in Community Board 1, Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Sunnyside , and Woodside...
, and in Stevens' Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
apartment. As with his previous albums, Stevens recorded in various locations, with additional piano recorded in St. Paul's Church in Brooklyn; strings and vocals performed in collaborators' apartments; electronic organ recorded in the New Jerusalem Recreational Room in Clarksboro, New Jersey
Clarksboro, New Jersey
Clarksboro is a historic area of Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States located in the existing municipality of East Greenwich Township.-Birthplace:*Hardy Richardson, former major league baseball player...
; and vibraphone played at Carroll Music Studios in New York City. Stevens mostly created the album without collaboration, focusing on the writing, performance, and technical creation of the album by himself: "I was pretty nearsighted in the construction of Illinois. I spent a lot of time alone, a few months in isolation working on my own and in the studio. I let things germinate and cultivate independently, without thinking about an audience or a live show at all."
Stevens employed low-fidelity recording equipment, which allowed him to retain creative control and keep costs low on recording Illinois. Typically, his process involved recording to 32 kHz 8-track tape using inexpensive microphones such as the Shure SM57 and AKG C1000
C1000 (microphone)
The C1000 is a cardioid/hypercardioid condenser microphone produced by AKG Acoustics.It uses either phantom power or an internal 9-volt battery for when phantom power is inconvenient or unavailable. This flexibility is also useful when using consumer recording gear that frequently lacks phantom...
. He then employed Pro Tools
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
for mixing and other production tasks.
After consulting with Michael Kaufmann and Lowell Brams of Asthmatic Kitty
Asthmatic Kitty
Asthmatic Kitty is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by a community of musicians from Holland, Michigan led by musician Sufjan Stevens and his stepfather Lowell Brams. Some were Holland natives, and others had come to attend local colleges and universities...
about the amount of material he had recorded, Stevens decided against a double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
, saying that would be "arrogant". In 2006, several tracks recorded during these sessions were sent to Seattle-based musician and producer James McAllister for additional instrumentation and production, and were released in 2006 on the follow-up album The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album. Among these outtakes are three separate recordings of the song "Chicago"—including the "Multiple Personality Disorder Version", which was produced during a subsequent tour. The "Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version" of the song was supposed to appear on the Illinois album, but was changed at the last minute.
Illinois was released on July 4, 2005, through Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
in Europe and was distributed domestically by Asthmatic Kitty Records starting July 5, 2005. Although he initially had no plans to perform this material live, less than two weeks after the release of Illinois, Stevens embarked on a North American tour to promote the album, performing with a string section of eight to ten members named the Illinoisemakers. He deliberately chose to avoid television as a promotional tool and focused on the tour performances themselves. He was supported on some dates by opening acts Liz Janes (who is also signed to Asthmatic Kitty) and Laura Veirs
Laura Veirs
Laura Pauline Veirs is an American singer-songwriter.Veirs was raised in Colorado, studied geology and Mandarin Chinese at Carleton College, worked as a translator for a geological expedition in China, and now lives in Portland, Oregon.While growing up, she heard folk-country, classical, and pop...
as well as Illinois collaborator Shara Worden
Shara Worden
Shara Worden is the lead singer and songwriter for My Brightest Diamond. She was previously a backup vocalist for Sufjan Stevens and the frontwoman of Awry.-Life:...
's solo project My Brightest Diamond
My Brightest Diamond
My Brightest Diamond is the project of singer–songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Shara Worden. The band has released two studio albums, 2006's Bring Me the Workhorse and 2008's A Thousand Shark's Teeth, along with a remix album Tear It Down and a download-only release through iTunes...
. He toured in support of the album again from September through November 2006, this time including dates in several European cities. During the 2006 dates, Stevens and his band transitioned from wearing University of Illinois-themed outfits to butterfly suits and bird wings.
Musical style and thematic elements
Reviewers have noted similarities between this album and those of musicians and composers in several musical genres—from popPop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
to contemporary classical
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
, even show tunes and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
-based time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
s. The lyrics and their rich thematic elements have been noted for their literary quality, earning comparisons to Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
, William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
, and Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
.
Musical style
Reviewers of Illinois have compared Stevens' style to Steve ReichSteve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Vince Guaraldi
Vince Guaraldi
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Guaraldi was an Italian American jazz musician and pianist noted for his innovative compositions and arrangements and for composing music for animated adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip...
, the Danielson Famile
Danielson Famile
Danielson is an American Rock band from Clarksboro, New Jersey that plays indie pop gospel music. The group consists of frontman Daniel Smith and a number of various artists with whom he collaborates...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Nick Drake
Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
, and Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Ben Gibbard , Chris Walla , Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr ....
. Stevens' use of large orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s in his music—much of it played by himself through the use of multi-track recording—has been noted by several reviewers. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
summarized the musical influences of Illinois, saying "the music draws from high school marching band
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
s, show tunes and ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
electronics; we can suspect Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians
Music for 18 Musicians
Music for 18 Musicians is a work of musical minimalism composed by Steve Reich during 1974-1976. Its world premiere was on April 24, 1976 at Town Hall, New York. Following this, a recording of the piece was released by ECM New Series...
is an oft-played record in the Stevens household, since he loves to echo it in his long instrumental passages." A review in The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
referred to some of the vocal work as "regressively twee communalism", but found Stevens' music overall to be "highly developed". The song "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" uses a saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
part from "Close to Me" by The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
.
The creation of Illinois marked a shift in Stevens' emphasis on songwriting and studio work toward live performance and more abstract concepts of motion and sound—subsequent tours and albums emphasized electronic music and modern dance over the indie folk material on Michigan and Illinois. He has ceased writing songs about individual characters with straightforward narratives or concept albums and briefly considered quitting the music business entirely after creating and promoting this album. He also found that the way in which he listened to music had changed after producing Illinois:
Stevens is a classically trained oboist
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
and his knowledge of classical
Classical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...
and baroque music
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
influenced many of his arrangements. Stevens himself has noted the influence of composers Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, and Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
; along with contemporary composers
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
, Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, and Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
. The music on this album was written to be grandiose, to match the history of the territory. Stevens used time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
changes in the composition of Illinois for dynamic effect—for instance, "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!" begins with a 5/4 time signature and then changes to a standard 4/4 later in the song.
Illinois themes
Many of the lyrics in Illinois make references to persons, places, and events related to the state of the same name. "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" is about a UFO sighting by police officers near Highland, IllinoisHighland, Illinois
Highland is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 9,433 at the 2010 census. Highland began as a Swiss settlement and derived its name from later German immigrants.Highland is a sister city of Sursee in Switzerland....
, where several persons reported seeing a large triangular object with three lights flying at night. "Come on! Feel the Illinoise!" makes reference to the World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
, which took place in Chicago in 1893.
"John Wayne Gacy, Jr." documents the story of the 1970s Chicago-based serial killer of the same name
John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was an American serial killer, rapist and clown who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawlspace of his home, buried three others elsewhere on his property, and discarded the...
. Several lyrics make explicit references to events in his life: "[w]hen the swingset hit his head" refers to event in Gacy's childhood, when a swing hit his head and caused a blood clot in his brain; "He dressed up like a clown for them / with his face paint white and red" alludes to the nickname given to Gacy—the "Killer Clown"; and "He put a cloth on their lips / Quiet hands, quiet kiss on the mouth" references Gacy's use of chloroform
Chloroform
Chloroform is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. It is one of the four chloromethanes. The colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid is a trihalomethane, and is considered somewhat hazardous...
to subdue and molest his victims. The song ends with the narrator turning inward with the lyrics: "And in my best behavior, I am really just like him / Look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid." Stevens stated in a 2009 interview with Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
that "we're all capable of what [Gacy] did."
"Casimir Pulaski Day" interweaves a personal story with the state holiday Casimir Pulaski Day
Casimir Pulaski Day
Casimir Pulaski Day is a holiday observed in Illinois on the first Monday of every March in memory of Casimir Pulaski , a Revolutionary War cavalry officer born in Poland as Kazimierz Pułaski. He is known for his contributions to the U.S...
. "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" makes references to Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, whose fictional hometown of Metropolis
Metropolis (comics)
Metropolis is a fictional city that appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is the home of Superman. Metropolis first appeared by name in Action Comics #16 ....
was partially modeled after Chicago (the town of Metropolis, Illinois
Metropolis, Illinois
Metropolis is a city located along the Ohio River in Massac County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,482...
has also capitalized on this association). Jessica Hooper of the Chicago Reader noted that Ray Middleton
Ray Middleton
Raymond Earl Middleton, Jr. , known and billed as Ray Middleton, was an American character actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Middleton was the first actor to play Superman in public, which he did on July 3, 1940, during the 1939 New York World's Fair's "Superman Day"...
—who was the first actor to play the comic book superhero—was also born in Chicago. "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!" makes references to ghost towns of Illinois. Stevens relates experiences from a summer camp he went to as a child in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
for "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!", but moved the locale to Illinois for the sake of the album. The track "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" includes references to Decatur, Illinois
Decatur, Illinois
Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city, sometimes called "the Soybean Capital of the World", was founded in 1823 and is located along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2000 the city population was 81,500,...
, but Stevens stated the track also acted as "an exercise in rhyme schemes". Some references to Decatur included in the song were alligator sightings in the area, the equipment manufacturer Caterpillar
Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...
, and a flood that exhumed a graveyard of soldiers from the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Other allusions to the state's people, places, and events include the Black Hawk War
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....
, author Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
, Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, the Sangamon River
Sangamon River
The Sangamon River is a principal tributary of the Illinois River, approximately long, in central Illinois in the United States. It drains a mostly rural agricultural area between Peoria and Springfield...
, the Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
, the Sears Tower dubbed "Seer's Tower" (now called Willis Tower), and the localities of Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Illinois
Jacksonville is a city in Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,940 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Morgan County....
, Peoria
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
, Metropolis
Metropolis, Illinois
Metropolis is a city located along the Ohio River in Massac County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,482...
, Savanna
Savanna, Illinois
Savanna is a city in Carroll County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,062 at the 2010 census, down from 3,542 at the 2000 census. Savanna is located along the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Plum River. Going from north to south, the second automobile bridge between Iowa and...
Caledonia
Caledonia, Illinois
Caledonia is a village in Winnebago County and Boone County, Illinois, United States. It is part of the Rockford, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Secor
Secor, Illinois
Secor is a village in Woodford County, Illinois, United States. The population was 379 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. Secor is located just off U.S. Route 24 between El Paso and Eureka....
, Magnolia
Magnolia, Illinois
Magnolia is a village in Putnam County, Illinois, United States. The population was 279 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Ottawa–Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Magnolia is located at ....
, Kankakee
Kankakee, Illinois
Kankakee is a city in Kankakee County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 25,561, and 26,840 as of a 2009 estimate. It is the county seat of Kankakee County...
, Evansville
Evansville, Illinois
Evansville is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. The population was 724 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Evansville is located at ....
, and the several locations named Centerville, Illinois. During the tour following the release of Illinois, Stevens' band wore cheerleader outfits based on those of the University of Illinois.
Christianity
Although Illinois is a concept album about the U.S. state, Stevens also explored themes related to ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. As a Christian musician, he has written and recorded music about spiritual themes throughout his career—particularly on the 2004 album Seven Swans
Seven Swans
Seven Swans is a folk rock music album by Sufjan Stevens. It includes songs about Christian spiritual themes and figures such as Abraham and Christ's Transfiguration...
—and prefers to talk about religious topics through song rather than directly in interviews or public statements. The song "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" includes the line "It's the great I Am"—taken from the response
I Am that I Am
I Am that I Am is a common English translation of the response God used in the Hebrew Bible when Moses asked for His name . It is one of the most famous verses in the Torah...
God gave when Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
asked for his name in the Book of Exodus . "Casimir Pulaski Day" describes the death of a girlfriend due to bone cancer, and the narrator questions God in the process. More abstract allusions appear in "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts", which utilizes Superman as a Christ figure and "The Seer's Tower", which references the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
and the Second Coming of Christ. Songs which were not written with an explicit theological focus—such as "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."—also feature religious themes such as sin and redemption.
Artwork
Divya Srinivasan created the album artwork, depicting a variety of Illinois-related themes, including AbrahamAbraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...
, the Sears Tower, and Black Hawk
Black Hawk (chief)
Black Hawk was a leader and warrior of the Sauk American Indian tribe in what is now the United States. Although he had inherited an important historic medicine bundle, he was not one of the Sauk's hereditary civil chiefs...
. The album cover reads, "Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise!" as a wordplay on the common mispronunciation of the state's name as "ill-i-NOYZ" and a reference to the Slade
Slade
Slade are an English rock band from Wolverhampton, who rose to prominence during the glam rock era of the early 1970s. With 17 consecutive Top 20 hits and six number ones, the British Hit Singles & Albums names them as the most successful British group of the 1970s based on sales of singles...
song "Cum On Feel the Noize
Cum on Feel the Noize
"Cum On Feel the Noize" is a rock song originally released by Slade in 1973.Written by Jim Lea and Noddy Holder and produced by Chas Chandler, "Cum On Feel the Noize" was Slade's fourth number-one single in the UK and their first to enter straight at number one...
" made famous by the metal band Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot is an American Heavy Metal band. They are best known for their hit singles "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel the Noize". They were founded in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni, under the original name Mach 1, before changing the name to Little Women and finally Quiet...
. The text on the cover caused some confusion over the actual title of the album—it is officially titled Illinois, as opposed to Come on Feel the Illinoise or Illinoise. Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
listed Illinois as having the seventh best album art of the decade 2000–2009. The album also won the PLUG Independent Music Award
PLUG Independent Music Awards
The PLUG Independent Music Awards, or just PLUG Awards, began in 2001 as a "cartel" of music lovers ranging from DJs and managers to indie retailers and fans.*This event is not in any way associated with the .-2008:...
for Album Art/Packaging of the Year in 2006.
Shortly after the release of the album, reports arose that DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
had issued a cease and desist letter to Asthmatic Kitty because of the depiction of Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
on the cover. However, on October 4, 2005, Asthmatic Kitty announced that there had been no cease and desist letter; the record company's own lawyers had warned about the copyright infringement. On June 30, 2005, Asthmatic Kitty's distributor Secretly Canadian
Secretly Canadian
Secretly Canadian is an American independent record label based in Bloomington, Indiana. It was started in 1996 by Chris and Ben Swanson, Eric Weddle, and Jonathan Cargill. Their first release was a re-issue of an album by June Panic...
asked its retailers not to sell the album; however, it was not recalled. On July 5, the distributor told its retailers to go ahead and sell their copies, as DC Comics agreed to allow Asthmatic Kitty to sell the copies of the album that were already manufactured, but the image was removed from subsequent pressings. Soon after it was made public that the cover would be changed, copies of the album featuring Superman were sold for as high as $75 on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
. On the vinyl edition released on November 22, 2005, Superman's image is covered by a balloon sticker. The image of the balloon sticker was also used on the cover of the Compact Disc and later printings of the double vinyl release. Stevens himself was surprised by the development and also had to pay a fee for referencing lyrics from Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
's folk anthem "This Land Is Your Land
This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on...
" in the track "No Man's Land", which was later released on The Avalanche.
Reception
Illinois was Sufjan Stevens' greatest commercial and critical success to date. For the first time, his work charted on the Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
and received several awards from critics.
Sales figures and chart performance
In its first week of sales, Illinois sold 9,000 copies, 20% coming from online sales. Overall, the album sold more than 100,000 copies by November 2005 and over 300,000 by the end of 2009. It was the first Sufjan Stevens release to place on the Billboard 200, reaching No. 121 within eight weeks on the chart. It also placed number one on Billboards "Heatseekers Albums" list and number four on the "Independent Albums" list, remaining on them for 32 and 39 weeks respectively.| Region | Sales charts (2005) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | Ultratop Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
80 |
| Norway | VG-lista VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
34 |
| United States | US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
121 |
| Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical... |
1 | |
| Independent Albums Independent Albums The Billboard Independent Albums is a chart of the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays in the United States, compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is used to list artists who are not signed to major labels... |
4 |
Critical reception
Critical reception of Illinois was overwhelmingly positive. Review aggregator MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
compiled 40 critic reviews of Illinois, and gave the album a 90/100 ("Universal Acclaim"), making it the best-reviewed album of 2005. Andy Battaglia of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
said that Stevens "has grown into one of the best song-makers in indie rock" with the album. Tim Jonze of NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
called Illinois "a brainy little fucker" and described Stevens as "prolific, intelligent and—most importantly—brimming with heart-wrenching melodies." Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
responded favorably to the album, praising the "over-the-top arrangements" and Stevens' "breathy, gentle voice". Sheffield criticized "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.", stating that it "symbolizes nothing about American life except the existence of creative-writing workshops", but elsewhere praised the personal nature of songs such as "Chicago" and "Casimir Pulaski Day". Michael Metivier of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
described "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." as "horrifying, tragic, and deeply sad without proselytizing." Amanda Petrusich of Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
described Illinois as "strange and lush, as excessive and challenging as its giant, gushing song titles." Dave Simpson of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
echoed this sentiment by saying that the music sounds like "The Polyphonic Spree
The Polyphonic Spree
The Polyphonic Spree is a choral symphonic pop rock band from Dallas, Texas that was formed in 2000 by Tim DeLaughter. The band's sound relies on a variety of vocal and instrumental color by featuring a choir, flute, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano, guitars, bass, drums,...
produced by Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
."
Jesse Jarnow of Paste praised the playful nature of Illinois, commenting that it had "sing-song" melodies and "jaunty" orchestrations. Jarnow also noted ironic lyrics, citing a line from "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!": "I can't explain the state I'm in..." after a section of the song that references many Illinois landmarks. Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
called Illinois a "sizeable step forward" from Michigan, and said Stevens' love for the state of Illinois is infectious. Catherine Lewis of the Washington Post responded favorably to the album, stating that it has well-written lyrics, comparing Stevens' rhyming to that of Stephin Merritt
Stephin Merritt
Stephin Merritt is an American singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles , best known as the principal singer and songwriter in the band The Magnetic Fields...
. Lewis cited "Casimir Pulaski Day" as one of the most memorable songs of the album.
Accolades
Illinois achieved lasting fame with inclusion on numerous reviewers' "best of the year" and "best of the decade" lists. In particular, the album topped the best of the decade list appearing in the November 2009 issue of Paste and National Public Radio named Illinois on their list of "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings". Pitchfork Media called Illinois the sixteenth best album of the decade, with Stevens' previous album—Michigan—placing 70 on that same list. The album also won the 2005 New Pantheon Award—a type of Shortlist Music PrizeShortlist Music Prize
The Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as , was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination...
. Finally, Paste listed Stevens as one of their "100 Best Living Songwriters" in 2006, primarily due to the writing on Michigan and Illinois.
| Publisher | Accolade | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and... |
Best of 2005: Top 100 Editors' Picks | #1 |
| Amazon.com Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and... |
Best of 2005: Editors' Picks in Alternative Rock | #2 |
| National Public Radio's All Songs Considered All Songs Considered All Songs Considered is a weekly online multimedia program started in January 2000 by NPR's All Things Considered director Bob Boilen. At first, the show featured information and streaming audio about the songs used as bumper music on All Things Considered. The program has turned into a source of... |
The Best Music of 2005 | #1 |
| NME NME The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles... |
50 best albums of 2005 | #7 |
| No Ripcord No Ripcord No Ripcord is an online music and film magazine based in Sheffield, England.-History:The website was originally created in April 1999 by editor-in-chief David Coleman and A.M. Booth... |
Top 50 Albums of 2005 | #1 |
| Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock... |
Top 50 Albums of 2005 | #1 |
| PopMatters PopMatters PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,... |
Best 50 Albums of 2005 | #2 |
| Spin Spin (magazine) Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard... |
The 40 Best Albums of 2005 | #8 |
| Stylus Magazine Stylus Magazine Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, a number of different podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog.... |
Top 50 Albums of 2005 | #10 |
| Publisher | Accolade | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| National Public Radio's All Songs Considered All Songs Considered All Songs Considered is a weekly online multimedia program started in January 2000 by NPR's All Things Considered director Bob Boilen. At first, the show featured information and streaming audio about the songs used as bumper music on All Things Considered. The program has turned into a source of... |
The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings | Unranked, out of 50 recordings |
| NME NME The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles... |
The Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade | #17 |
| No Ripcord No Ripcord No Ripcord is an online music and film magazine based in Sheffield, England.-History:The website was originally created in April 1999 by editor-in-chief David Coleman and A.M. Booth... |
The No Ripcord Years (1999–2009) | Unranked, one of six reviewed for 2005 |
| Paste Paste (magazine) Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:... |
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade | #1 |
| Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock... |
The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s | #16 |
| Rolling Stone Rolling Stone Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J... |
100 Best Albums of the '00s | #78 |
| Slant | Best of the Aughts: Albums | #9 |
Track listing
Personnel
- Sufjan StevensSufjan StevensSufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...
– acousticAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
; pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
; WurlitzerWurlitzerThe Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....
; bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
; drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
; electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
; oboeOboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
; altoAlto saxophoneThe alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
; fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
; banjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
; glockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
; accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
; vibraphoneVibraphoneThe vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
; alto, sorpanino, soprano, and tenor recorderRecorderThe recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
s; CasiotoneCasiotoneCasiotone refers to a series of home electronic keyboards released by Casio Computer Co. in the early 1980s.These first keyboards used a sound synthesis technique known as Vowel-Consonant synthesis to approximate the sounds of other instruments...
MT-70; sleigh bells; shakerShaker (percussion)The word shaker describes a large number of percussive musical instruments used for creating rhythm in music.They are so called because the method of creating sound involves shaking them—moving them back and forth rather than striking them. Most may also be struck for a greater accent on certain...
; tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
; triangleTriangle (instrument)The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve...
; electronicElectronic organAn electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
; vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
; arrangementArrangementThe American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
; engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
; recording; productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Julianne Carney – violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
- Alan Douches – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
at West West Side Music, Tenafly, New JerseyTenafly, New JerseyTenafly is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 14,488. Tenafly is an affluent suburb of New York City.... - Jon Galloway – remixRemixA remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
ing on "Chicago" (To String Remix) - Marla Hansen – violaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
- The Illinoisemaker Choir – backing vocals and clapping on "The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'", "Chicago", "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts", "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!", and "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders"
- Tom Eaton
- Jennifer Hoover
- Katrina Kerns
- Beccy Lock
- Tara McDonnell
- Maria Bella Jeffers – celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
- Katrina Kerns – backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
on "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois", "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!", "Jacksonville", "Prairie Fire That Wanders About", "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!", "The Seer's Tower", "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders", and "The Avalanche" - James McAlister – drums, drum engineering
- Craig Montoro – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, backing vocals on "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!" - Rob Moose – violin
- Matt Morgan – backing vocals on "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!"
- Daniel and Elin Smith – backing vocals and clapping on "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!"
- Divya Srinivasan – artwork
- Shara WordenShara WordenShara Worden is the lead singer and songwriter for My Brightest Diamond. She was previously a backup vocalist for Sufjan Stevens and the frontwoman of Awry.-Life:...
– backing vocals on "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois", "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!", "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.", "Casimir Pulaski Day", "Prairie Fire That Wanders About", "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!", "The Seer's Tower", "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders", and "The Avalanche"