i never have, nor ever will consider myself a 'hipster' when it comes to music. but i try to at least keep in the loop with who is getting a lot of buzz. ive been hearing about this guy a lot for the past six months or so, but ive never been able to actually hear his music.well, yesterday i finally did. and i have to ask: whats the big deal? i listened to his illinois album and didnt really care for it. he has an amazing voice, which i loved, but heres the problem: the music is very eclectic. that is usually a good thing, but from what i listened to (about the first half of the album twice) its too eclectic. its all over the place. now, i understand what hes going for here, hes trying to incorporate all the music that is a part of the state and trying to tie it all in to have an authentic representation of the culture that is illinois. i get that part, but im not interested. i like an album with an eclectic feel, but this one seems to have every eclectic feel it can strong-arm into one disc. the way i typically listen to music is by poping in a cd and listening straight through. i dont like 'shuffle', and i rarely like compilation cds. i like albums that have a unified sound. they dont all have to have the same tempo or volume, but i like it when the artist uses the same aural language through out. with this album each song sounded completely different (except that they all sounded like he was trying too hard to be strange). one song would be just woodwinds, the next would have a xylephone and bells, the next would have drums and guitars. i dont know, maybe my musical tastes are a bit more restricted than i thought, but i wont be jumping on the sufjan bandwagan anytime soon. i guess i will remain 'unhip'.
