Setting to one side his life-time goal of recording a long-play homage to all 50 American states, Sufjan Stevens follows up his recent All Delighted People EP with a woozily untethered fifth studio album, a gauzy affair that drifts along on an ocean of strange orchestral swells and electronic glimmerings. Unabashedly avant-garde, the LP is part inspired by ‘apocalyptic’ artist Royal Robertson, whose naive art channelled his fear of imminent apocalypse (the ‘what the fuck?’ album sleeve is by Roberts). Lyrically, Stevens is swimming in deep, dark places: rather than of the autobiographical, and social-historical constructs of his break-out albums, Illinois and Greetings from Michigan, the emphasis here is on the subterranean and otherworldly. Which isn’t to say Age of Adz (pronounced “odds”) is impenetrable – the title track may sound like a Flaming Lips subverting a ‘30s Disney score, but the whooping “Oh, oh, oh” refrain keeps you listening even as the track turns steadily more bonkers. Similarly, the twitchy r’n b references of ‘Get Real Get Right’ feel creepily poignant alongside Sufjan’s choir-boy warble whilst the po-faced Andrew-Lloyd Webber-isms of ‘All For Myself’ crackle with guilty pleasure energy. There’s no ‘Chicago’ here – on the upside, at least Stevens is unlikely to find himself name-checked by Snow Patrol in the near future.
Key track: ‘The Age of Adz’