Javelin cover

Javelin

Released

It’s a hackneyed idea, but Sufjan Stevens’ tenth studio album would appear to bear out the old adage that great suffering can produce great art. Not only contending with a diagnosis and hospitalisation from a rare autoimmune disease that left him unable to walk, Stevens lost his partner Evans Richardson during the making of Javelin, and the latter is a loss that can be felt resonating throughout these delicate, stirring songs. Following moves into more conceptual and instrumental music, Stevens returns here to the chamber folk of 2015’s Carrie & Lowell with choirs, strings and subtle electronics elevating his heartbreak into something of breathtaking beauty.

Chris Catchpole

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