SUFJAN STEVENS

The BQE

2010-01-12

After the amazing collections of "Michigan" and "Illinois," leave it to Sufjan Stevens to tackle another historic-driven musical venture: the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (or BQE). Commissioned to do music and a film documentary, Stevens did meticulous research and delivered an instrumental soundtrack that intends to tell the story of this controversial roadway (which cuts through neighborhoods with hair-raising turns that make our own S-Curve look like a garden path). If you liked the instrumental passages in his previous discs, you will appreciate the layers of instruments and themes that he presents here. If you're wondering what's with the women with hula hoops on the CD jacket, Stevens makes the connection and contrast between the BQE and the invention of the hula hoop, invented the same year the expressway was completed. Hard to imagine what this guy will do next! Amazingly talented, often hyper-intellectual, never boring. 01/10 F-Esoteric (Instrumental) Michael J.

Quick Links:

More reviews tagged #Folk

  • reviewed 04/2006

    Rachel Sage
    The Blistering Sun

  • reviewed 06/2007

    STEVE FORBERT
    Strange Names & New Sensations

  • reviewed 06/2011

    SMALL TOWN SON
    Burning Good Rubber

  • reviewed 02/2008

    ALLISON MOORER
    Mockingbird

  • reviewed 10/2004

    Kasey Chambers
    Wayward Angel

  • reviewed 04/2011

    THE BLACK LILLIES
    100 Miles Of Wreckage

Compiled by the WYCE Journalism Club

The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.