Matthew 10:14
Sufjan Stevens - 'Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals as I Run' (Illinois - 2005)
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Illinois is one of the first records that I was aware of because of being online. 2005 was the first full year that I had access to the internet as default on my computer via broadband rather than needing a dial-up.
As you can imagine, this was a gateway to hearing more music and reading more about it.
Albums like Arcade Fire's Funeral, LCD Soundsystem, The National and Bright Eyes eventually found their way to the offline conversations and UK print magazines of the time that influenced what I was seeking out. Still, with Illinois, the Pitchfork review awarded it a 9.2, and the online discourse in places like I Love Music and Sound Opinions Message Board inspired me to look for it on Soulseek and add the files to my Creative Zen MP3 player.
Already in the first few posts on this website, we've had reprises, literal show-tune endings, tossed off filler. Here we have another trope of the album closer; the poignant and restrained instrumental end. This one is the most apparent closer we've had so far. It wouldn't work anywhere else on the record, even Lou Reed's "Goodnight Ladies" you can imagine being played on the radio.
It's a long song, firstly for how slight and minimalist it sounds - it is very much in the Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians style of chamber pop music. Comparisons to Brian Eno and Phillip Glass are appropriate as Stevens turns a one-note riff into a wintery and charming piece. It also reminds me of John Adams' 'Grand Pianola Music', which featured in Sid Meier's Civilization IV, another 2005 pop-culture behemoth.
It is also long in the context of the record being a sprawling 74 minutes in total and being the 22nd track on the album. Given that combination, it is a song that maybe outstays its welcome, but I'm sure people who rate this album as outstanding rather than merely very good like I do, think it a beautiful and apposite album closer.
There's little to pick apart with no lyrics other than the lengthy full title with the biblical reference to Matthew 10:14 and the fact that there is a Little Egypt in southern Illinois.