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The Ascension (Sufjan Stevens album)
2020 studio album by Sufjan Stevens From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Ascension is the eighth studio album by American musician Sufjan Stevens. It was released through Asthmatic Kitty on September 25, 2020.[2] The record was influenced by a range of artists, particularly Ariana Grande and her 2018 song "Thank U, Next".[3]
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Music and lyrics
NPR's Lindsay Zoladz describes The Ascension as "an 80-minute meditation that revisits nearly every one of the grand themes he has explored during his two-decade career: Love, death, faith, desire, place, country, apocalypse, resurrection."[4]
Release
The album's lead single, "America", was released on July 3, 2020.[5] A second single, "Video Game", was released on August 13 along with a music video choreographed by Jalaiah Harmon.[6][7] A third single, "Sugar", and its music video were released on September 15.[8][9]
Critical reception
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The Ascension received positive reviews upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received an average score of 80 based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11] Music critic Tom Hull gave it an A-minus and said "singer-songwriter" may be "too self-limiting" a designation for Stevens, who "is a pop composer of grand sweep and delicate bearing, an heir to Brian Wilson working on if anything a broader canvas. His is not a style I'm fond of, but half of these songs click for me, and the others seem to be lurking in the depths, awaiting their moment."[23] Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky, however, was more tempered in his praise, noting: "But despite its allusions to pop music escapism, The Ascension is, by design, kind of a drag: a dark and emotionally distant mood piece whose lyrics rarely touch on the specifics necessary to anchor the music, and whose music is rarely exciting enough to elevate his words."[24]
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Track listing
All tracks are written by Sufjan Stevens.
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Personnel
- Sufjan Stevens – vocals (all tracks), drums and percussion (all tracks), Tempest (1–13, 15), electric guitar (1, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15), Prophet '08 (all tracks), Prophet 6 (1–11, 13, 15), Prophet X (1, 4, 7–9, 13–15), piano (2, 5, 14, 15), recorders (11, 15); performance, recording, engineering, arrangement, mixing, production; all original art, layout, design, typography
- Casey Foubert – bass guitar (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13), vibraphone (1), electric guitar (2, 4, 6–8, 11), lead electric guitar (9, 10, 15); recording and engineering (own contributions)
- Bryce Dessner – electric guitar (1)
- Emil Nikolaisen – black magic (1, 8); engineering (own contributions)
- James McAlister – additional drums and percussion (3–6), vocal cut-up effects (4); recording and engineering (own contributions)
- TW Walsh – mastering
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Charts
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References
External links
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