Okay, Sufjan Fans, Are You Ready For the GREATEST TEST OF YOUR LIFE??

Okay, so remember when I posted my blog about Sufjan Stevens'Illinois and how I had kind of gone sour on it once everyone started to constantly tell me how awesome it was? And remember when I talked about the Arcade Fire on my radio show a few weeks ago and talked about how I hadn't been a fan to speak of, and then their new album came out and it BLEW MY MIND?? Not only that, but remember how all the really big Arcade Fire fans were acting all jaded and disappointed in the album??

Another similar event is about to come to pass. I am sure of it.

Sufjan Stevens is about to release a new album, and from the description given to us on the InSound preorder listing (click above link to go read it), it sounds like Sufjan is about to take a little bit of a left turn in terms of his sound. Now, mind you, last year he released The BQE, which was mostly orchestral and instrumental, but I wouldn't be surprised if most Sufjan fans didn't sweat it, because it was a FILM SCORE. This album, however (titled The Age of Adz), is a full-fledged ALBUM OF SONGS WITH VOCALS, and is mostly electronic in nature (and not based in delightfully melancholy acoustic guitar and piano), from what the InSound description says.

Are you ready, folks? Are you ready to give liking this album a real, honest try? Are you ready to allow the guy to truly express himself and put something new into the world that he worked hard on and is proud of, without letting YOUR preconceived notions of what a Sufjan album SHOULD sound like get in the way??

Expectations are a bitch, folks. And I suggest you shed them quickly if you're gonna really allow this album to be heard the way it should.

But who am I to say? Ultimately this is all subjective. Maybe all the Sufjan fans are way more open than I think, and will happily approach anything he gives them with as little bias as they can muster. But it's not every day that an artist has to follow up a record that was named "Album of the Decade" by a respectable publication like Paste Magazine (R.I.P., BTW).

And you're either gonna be part of the "backlash", or you're not. It's probably a decision that must be made before you actually hear the record.

Oh, and if you think that I must hate the guy, you should really go back and read my Illinois entry, where I talk about the fact that it really IS a great album.