S.S. Avalanche

Sufjan Stevens - The Henney Buggy Band [mp3 removed]

Somebody commented on the song's original Stereogum post:

Any truth to the rumor the Sufjan shot his load all over Illinois and not rosie thomas?? Seriously, can he save a good song or two for the next state?

Funny as this reads, it really does voice a concern of mine. How is this man so consistent? Are my worries unfounded? He hasn't hinted at slowing and his output is of uniformly good-to-great quality, the closest thing to a wunderkind we've seen. Perhaps more than my worry that Stevens will lose steam, I fear that I'll begin taking him for granted. In my college career alone, he's released three of my favorite albums. At this point not only do I expect Rhode Island or Oregon or Nebraska (slight problem with that one?) to be excellent, but I expect The Avalanche, nothing more than demos and rarities, to be fantastic as well. Demos. I'm not sure if that's fair - there's certainly no other artist I dare demand this much of.

All that aside, "The Henney Buggy Band" is a cool, slinky number, a late-night street-light song brought to life by Stevens' impressive cast. It sounds like a production, too: instruments entering one after the other, all short, jumpy notes, never still except to let Stevens' ghost-falsetto ring. "Forget about yourself and all your plans," (I think). As before, his lyrics are at once stunningly personal and impossibly allusive - for all the references to obsolete motor companies and runners in Bloomington, the song remains about us. And that's what saves it from becoming a dry history lesson - the allusions are just a vehicle (ha) for Stevens' story about kissing you on the face, on the playground.