Sufjan Stevens Sevens Swans

Michigan could have become a trap for Sufjan Stevens. Soon after his 2003 opus became one of that year’s most acclaimed albums, he was then known as both “the state guy”—one who was supposedly making an album about all 50 states—and “the orchestral indie guy,” as his music swelled with horns, glockenspiels, and little choirs. Arriving only eight months later, in early 2004, Seven Swans was something of his salvation. Stevens had touched on Christianity before, but he dove into it entirely here, telling stories from the Bible and wondering how they fit into complex lives of turmoil and trauma. What’s more, Seven Swans was a smaller-sounding album, with gently picked banjo or strummed guitar traced by faint keyboards, careful drums—and, sometimes, nothing at all. The material that became Seven Swans actually predated much of Michigan. During solo sets that followed his first two albums, Stevens would pull from a pool of acoustic tunes about faith, playing for smaller audiences. As he worked on his ode to his home state, he would sometimes decamp to New Jersey to join his friends in the Danielson Famile, a folk group with close ties to Stevens, as well to as the indie-Christian scene. Together, they played with the looseness that close camaraderie can foster, as the Danielson members gathered around to hear a trusted pal unload his burden. Seven Swans begins with a graceful song of hopeful praise, as Stevens longs to join the ranks of the anointed during “All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands.” It ends with two songs of rapture and devotion, with both “Seven Swans” and “The Transfiguration” sharing two key scenes of Christianity. But this is not the work of the proselytizer looking to convert anyone. Rather, Stevens wonders how his faith functions in a world where evil exists (see “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” an exquisite retelling of a Flannery O’Connor tale), and in which personal trauma is real and constant (see “Size Too Small”). Seven Swans is the sound of Stevens trying to reckon belief with reality, of finding his way forward with the help of friends.