Sufjan Stevens – ‘Javelin’ Review: Coming Out

metroweekly.com:

The Age of Adz, when he sings, “I would say I love you/but saying it out loud is hard,” and after a pause, concludes, “So I won’t say it at all.”Echoes of that brief and arresting expression of yearning can be found throughout his body of work over the last decade, whether he is grieving an intense personal loss or marveling at the cosmos itself.Although that finely tuned evasiveness around his own desire has long characterized his music, on his latest release Javelin (★★★★☆) he seems ready to say the quiet parts out loud.Stevens’ songwriting has always been lyrical, evocative, and rich in metaphor, so it should be no surprise that he has again delivered a collection of beautifully written songs.What is notable about his writing in Javelin is how intense and personal it is, containing none of the artful detachment of A Beginner’s Mind nor the grandiosity of its predecessor, The Ascension.

Instead, he bares his soul with the same open-hearted frankness he brought to 2015’s Carrie and Lowell, his meditation on his complicated grief for his mother.Unlike Carrie and Lowell, it would be difficult to make the case that Javelin is really “about” anything more than Stevens’ need to be seen and understood.

He puts himself at the center of the album, notably forgoing his well-used gift for metaphor and allegory — this time around, it is just him and us.Circumspect as ever, he never lets onto the exact people and circumstances he is singing about.

One of the most folky offerings on the album, “My Little Red Fox,” is a pleading love song that just barely hides its heartache behind a melody that verges on whimsical.On the more straightforwardly vulnerable “Will Anybody Ever Love Me,” he fixates over swelling drums and flutes on his.