Carrie & Lowell

I had skimmed the reviews here on Amazon suggesting that this is an album that deserves to be listened to straight through with your full attention. Despite them, I first put on the album as background music while I worked. I managed to get through the first couple songs that way, just a sweet, mellow soundtrack to what I was doing. By the third song, I couldn't help but pay attention. By the sixth song, I had tears in my eyes.Since that first listen a few days ago, I have not been able to shake this album. I rushed to get tickets to the tour which is about to pass through my town.It's a little weird to recommend this album to other people because it's really not... fun, and it's a little hard for me to pin down why I can't stop coming back to it. It's pretty bleak all around with an unapologetic honesty. It feels extremely personal, so much so that I admire Sufjan Stevens' bravery in being willing to open up so much to us strangers about his grief over his mother's death and the dark period in his life that accompanied it. As much as the album seems to be so much a window into Sufjan's own singular experiences, it also puts an emphasis on the uncomfortable truth that like Sufjan's mother and someday like Sufjan himself, "we're all going to die." It's something we all have to come to terms with; we knew it before we listened to this album and it will still be there when we put the album away. Even if Carrie & Lowell does little to soften the blow, it at least offers us company. Though the songs are quiet and bare, the vulnerable quality of their delivery and the heaviness of their subjects makes the entire album feel like something much bigger than it is.

Such a joy to listen to!

Let me start by saying this. I'm a 40 year old guy, that would name most of his favorite albums from the 90’s with a few 80’s and 2000’s peppered in there. I don’t get the chance to listen to as much anymore, and not as much strikes a chord with me as it used to. BUT – then I heard this album. I have always respected Sufjan, and was hit and miss on his work in the past. But this album hit me like a ton of bricks. I don’t really know how to explain it. But it is masterful in its execution. No song is that different than the next when you really think about it. They are all very soft, beautiful, steady voiced songs that almost flow as one complete work. I think that it makes the subtle shifts of mood and tone within songs and from song to song, take real meaning. I have yet to make it through the album without holding back tears. It is incredibly honest and intricately written. All of Me Wants all of You, Fourth of July, and Blue Bucket of Gold, just wreck me. Anyone who has lost anyone will be able to take some heartbreaking solace in this album.

As a huge music lover, honestly, while I liked Sufjan's work, I had not really connected with more than a few songs and liked him well in general.I listened to this when it was on NPR's First Listen. I could not get over it, stop listening to it. IT IS AN AMAZING, RAW, HEARTGRIPPING ALBUM. I like a LOT of music. This one is the first album in a long time, that in my mind, qualifies as a masterpiece. Definitely one of my favorite all time albums.The vulnerability in this album is breathtaking. I honestly feel like this album is a service to all of us humans. We will all experience grief in this lifetime and I know I will return again and again to this album to keep me company in the depths of the worst of it and transport me to shore as well.There are a few songs that I cannot listen to without tearing up. "Should Have Known Better" is a killer.An aside, live, this show blew me away too. But no big surprise.Thank you, Sufjan!

Arrived pretty quick for me. The seller left a nice note on the box which I appreciate:) love the album and fits with my music collection! Highly recommend

Sufjan has been a favorite of mine for over a decade now. Carrie & Lowell takes a turn away from the tone of his previous albums. The lighthearted, sometimes manically happy interludes that peppered his albums is nowhere to be found here. There are no dramatic tonal shifts in his songs anymore. Written in the wake of his mother's death, this is definitely his heaviest album. Sufjan's talents as a lyricist are showcased here. He still manages to make all of his songs feel oddly personal. I have a difficult time articulating how I appreciate his talent. Beautiful album. I highly recommend reading an interview he did with Pitchfork, titled "True Myth: A Conversation with Sufjan Stevens" for an in depth look at the meaning behind this album.

I will let the other reviews speak to the quality of the music. I am simply reviewing the quality of the vinyl pressing, which is awful. I pulled the album out of the shrink-wrapped cover to find it covered with dust, tiny pieces of paper from the sleeve, and greasy fingerprints. Seriously. I am listening to it now, and this quiet and beautiful music is being accompanied with a constant chorus of pops and ticks, like something you played on a portable record player as a kid. Awful. Disappointing.The 5 stars are for the music. I would give the record itself NO stars.

Every few years there comes along an album that's so quietly devastating that it takes me a while to get over it. Carrie & Lowell is one of those albums. Unlike some of his previous work, Stevens doesn't vary the song structures much on this album and it doesn't sound like he's thrown his usual plethora of instruments into the mix. Each song is simply arranged and a few of them are nearly identical to each other. The lyrics speak of deep loss and grief and the poor and all-too-human urges we have when we are in the throes of such emotions. Sometimes it's the survivors, sometimes it's the dead that narrate the songs. The heart of the album lies in "Fourth of July" and "The Only Thing", although I think my favorite is "John My Beloved". I can't recommend this album highly enough.