On what will be his 10th studio album and first since 2020, Sufjan Stevens returns with Javelin. An album marking the departure from recent experimental projects such as ‘Ascension’ and ‘Convocations’, and a return to his singer-songwriter roots. This album plays like 2005’s widely celebrated indie–folk cult classic Carrie & Lowell. With a run time of under 45 minutes, it’s a blissfully sad yet wonderfully inspiring collection of songs that explore Stevens’ ever-evolving definition of “love”.
The album, accompanied by a 48-page booklet of art and essays, is reminiscent of his earlier works, relying heavily on devotional melodies coupled with gut-wrenching lyrical intimacy. “You know I love you, But everything heaven sent must burn out in the end,” he sings on the opening track ‘Goodbye Evergreen’. It’s a song that starts as most do on the album, with quiet contemplation. He sits behind his piano with hushed vocals before being accompanied by an ever-growing layering of different elements that explode to a hopeful peak.
This fragile balladry is ever present on the album. This bruised frailty is partially in ‘Will Anybody Ever Love Me?’. The track sounds like something from the self-deprecating mind of Morrissey. The lyrics are raw and direct. His vocals here, backed by gently plucked banjos, sit at a yearning whisper as he asks if anyone will ever “pledge allegiance to my burning heart”. It is a beautifully composed, self-reflecting, yet undeniably relatable little gem. It’ll undoubtedly become many listeners’ instant favourite.
A recurring theme in Stevens’ work over the years has been references to faith, and here on Javelin, we see them appear once again skilfully intertwined into the fabric of the songs. On ‘Genuflecting Ghost’, he could be pleading to God or a lover: “Rise, my love, show me paradise.” Leading to the more openly devotional shades of “Give myself as a sacrifice, Genuflecting ghost, I kiss the floor, Rise, my love, show me paradise.” It’s a subtle song, layered with a gentle accompanying choir that lifts and carries Stevens’ featherweight voice here to a fuller conclusion with electronic symphonies to finish.
‘My Red Little Fox’ quickly follows, an enchanting hymn-like track built on a dreamy piano melody, layering its way to a chorus that gently soars with the help of the backing choir and delightful bells. It builds its way along a melancholic foundation before eventually shifting up a gear to conclude with an underpinning of electronica to close.
The heart-breaking ‘So You Are Tired’ tumbles in next. The song includes what could easily be Stevens’ most heart-breaking lyrics since Carrie & Lowell, “So you are dreaming of after, was it just all for fun? I was the man still in love with you when I already knew it was done”. The track explores what was left behind, inquisitively mapping out the acceptance stage at the end of a relationship. The hushed longing of his vocals here perfectly accompanies the romantic, sweeping acoustic composition that forms the song’s foundation, finding grace in the painful demise of the relationship he’s revisiting.
‘Shit Talk’ helps to wrap the album up, boasting of an appearance from The Nationals Bryce Dessner and a few other friends; the eight-and-a-half minute track dazzles and plays like a lesson on loves aching desire while reluctantly acknowledging its contradictory and sometimes unavoidable terrors. Like most of the songs before it, it starts with a gentle fingerpicking of the guitar before slowly swelling to an orchestral crescendo, brimming with celestial choral harmonies that ignite the song into life, driving home some devastatingly simple yet hard-hitting lyrics – “I will always love you, But I cannot look at you” – amongst this immensely layered mini-epic.
The album finds power in silence. His vocals may come across as nothing more than a comforting whisper at times, but they are delivered with a deafening punch. Javelin will disarm you instantly, bring you into a reflective state and show you the beauty found in heartache. The album’s lyrics read like a painful poem, but the soaring melodies and perfect arrangements attached deliver undeniable elements of hope.
The album’s release also comes with an unwanted dose of poignancy after Stevens’ recent diagnosis of the rare autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Sharing his experience on social media, he revealed that he “woke up one morning and couldn’t walk” with the serious illness leading to time in hospital. Successful treatment has halted his condition deteriorating, and he is now undergoing physical therapy to learn to walk again. He explained that it’s “one of the reasons why I haven’t been able to participate in the press and promotion leading up to the release of ‘Javelin'”.
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