PROS: incredible sonic landscapes | inventive album packaging
CONS: a lot to chew
As classical music goes, I am no connoisseur. I want something that will hold my interest and that I can appreciate for its artistic merits. The BQE is an innovative piece of artwork. It is a mirror that we can see ourselves in and reflect upon the state of industrialization, innovation and American culture. What The BQE is not is easily accessible. True, you can listen and enjoy with greater ease than the typical neo-classical Phillip Glass or Steve Reich, but it remains challenging even for the most die-hard fan.
The BQE is the Brookline-Queens Expressway, a lumbering, ugly thorn in New York’s side. An unlikely subject for a symphony. But, then again, Sufjan has made his name in the unlikely.
Sufjan Stevens has quickly become a legend. His releases have garnered critical acclaim across the board and earned him a place in indie rock’s canon of patron saints. Sufjan Stevens, patron saint of unbridled creativity, rambling yet intimate conversations and general eclecticism.
But it seems that all of the pressure of recognition has seeped into Sufjan’s creative output. It has been a full four years since Illinois. He’s been busy in the meantime, never ceasing to put out great tracks for compilations, produce and appear on other people’s albums (like label mates Welcome Wagon’s eponymous debut and DM Stith’s Heavy Ghost), and just recently embark on a small tour laden with strange new material.
It was around two years ago when I wished more than anything that I could be in the Big Apple to witness Sufjan and full orchestra perform his little multi-visual/aural assault on The BQE. Now, finally, the endeavor is available in full wide release (and not just in disparate, jumpy youtube videos of the live performance).
But, if you are expecting another pop gem like Come On, Feel the Illinoise! or the subdued introspection of Seven Swans, expect to be confused and/or disappointed.
The BQE offers a more diverse palette of sounds and textures than any other previous work by Stevens. Equal parts the familiar soft-spoken piano, choral voices, and layered counter-rhythms, as things borrowed from John Williams fanfare, 70s cop show themes, Gershwin-esque jazz breaks, and electro-club explosions.
One of the problems with the piece is related to the overall structure, in that the peak comes too early. Almost exactly half way through the album the slow building crescendo of orchestral instrumentation erupts into the electro glitch of “Movement IV: Traffic Shock”. At first listen I was thrown off to the point of thinking my iTunes had started playing something else.
Now beyond the music, it is important to touch upon the supplementary material, as the album is incomplete without it. The DVD included in the two-disc physical album consists of The BQE film to which the piece was originally performed live. Scenes of highway advertising, a carnival, a giant inflatable gorilla bearing an American flag, and unexpectedly sexy hula-hoopers bring a new sense of revelry and critique which is far less tangible in the music by itself. All of the places where the music doesn’t make sense on its own gain new ground with the inclusion of the accompanying footage of The BQE.
Plus, stick around after the credits and you will find a super special treat which I don’t want to spoil.
The packaging was designed by Stevens himself and is filled with his self-depricating, introspective sense of irony. The liner notes include a comprehensive, albeit confusing and longwinded, existential thesis about the project. Stevens goes a long way to explain the concepts he was aiming to explore. The album art features trippy, illegible, futuristic graffiti graphics layered atop stills from the film. Also included is an all but useless Stereo-scopic 3D image reel, playable in all View-Master® viewers. Like the stickers included with his Christmas compilation box-set, it’s an endearing little keepsake.
The BQE is a lovely, multi-faceted, flawed gemstone. Overall, the release sags under the weight of the same grand ambition which burdened Robert Moses’ abomination from which the album gets its name. For die-hards, it is worth it to shell out a little extra cash to experience the project in full. But for most, if anything, it is a guarantee that we will remain anxiously awaiting Sufjan’s next move.
Available now from Asthmatic Kitty Records, on CD/DVD and limited edition vinyl.
(4 out of 5 beards)
Track Listing
01. Prelude on the Esplanade
02. Introductory Fanfare for the Hooper Heroes
03. Movement I: In the Countenance of Kings
04. Movement II: Sleeping Invader
05. Interlude I: Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation
06. Movement III: Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise
07. Movement IV: Traffic Shock
08. Movement V: Self-Organizing Emergent Patterns
09. Interlude II: Subi Power Waltz
10. Interlude III: Invisible Accidents
11. Movement VI: Isorhythmic Night Dance with Interchanges
12. Movement VII (Finale): The Emperor of Centrifuge
13. Postlude: Critical Mass
John Praw Kruse
Corey Murphy
Laura Stingl
Zach Harris
This album definitely caught me off guard when I first heard it and even more so when I got to the techno part in the middle. Don’t get me wrong, a project like this one is an enormous task and one that requires great skill but the way I see this album is, on its own, just the next logical step for Sufjan. I don’t really think he has created any orchestral masterpiece in the BQE but that it is a rather amateur work. I understand that it is set to a film and I think that this is needed for the work to be understood. I have seen parts of the film and it is definitely half of the art. Why would you listen to this “symphony” that is nothing special when there are hundreds of amazing symphonies available? Is it merely because it is the work of a pop culture icon? I love Sufjan and hope that he would continue to work on this sort of project but in the future, I think applying a bit of his tried and true song writing style to something this large would be a more effective way of going about it.
I think I’ll have to disagree with you, Corey.
1) Be careful about calling it techno. It’s definitely not. I think the inclusion of that great “glitch-pop” section (or whatever you want to call it) is one of the best things about the piece. Some people seem to be surprised about the style, but it definitely makes sense in the context that Sufjan is going back to his Enjoy Your Rabbit days (with the remake and now this) – especially when you look at his track from Dark Was The Night and the videos of the three new songs that have come out.
2) I think I agree with you about the “pop culture icon” comment. Sufjan could basically do anything he wants, and the main criticism he’s going to get is that fans want more. I think this “symphony” is actually really good, though. Maybe it’s just different than the other symphonies, but I definitely enjoyed it. It is not a masterpiece, but I do not think that it is amateur either. Even more important than the quality of the piece is what it is doing for music. Think of the audience that would never think to listen to this kind of music, but now are because Sufjan did it. Anything that crosses genre and scene boundaries like this is a-okay in my book.
3) I don’t think Sufjan’s actual songs (with vocals, if that’s what you mean) would have fit with this project. This is really something quite different than an album. And with Sufjan saying that he’s not really in the mood to share his songs with people (as he said in a recent interview), I don’t think we could have hoped for some actual classic-style Sufjan songs.
Again, I agree with you, Corey, that this is no masterpiece. But the transition from the more classical parts to the insane electro-glitch-pop-whatever part in the middle of the song is definitely masterfully done. Sufjan knows what he’s doing. He’s arranged things like this before, just in the context of his other songs. It will be interesting to see how his compositional skills compare in his upcoming collaboration (with his father-in-law[?]).
I think the bottom line, perhaps, is that I just enjoyed this album a bit more than you. And maybe it’s as simple as that. We certainly have a different background coming in to this release.
P.S. I just thought about something. In Joanna Newsom’s album Ys, Van Dyke Parks wrote the orchestral accompaniment. What an amazing Frankenstein piece of art they could make if Joanna repeated the process with Sufjan Stevens arranging the orchestration and producing the album.
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