"I can't explain the state that I'm in."
Illinois, or Sufjan Stevens Invites You to: Come On Feel the Illinoise (as the album cover would have it), is the fifth studio LP by American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens. Released on July 4, 2005 to immediate acclaim, Illinois firmly established Stevens as the indie star and critical darling he has remained to this day.
A Concept Album positively steeped in the geography, history, and folklore of the eponymous state, Illinois was billed as the second installment—after 2003’s Michigan—of an ambitious recording project which would eventually encompass all 50 U.S. states. In reality, Stevens never released an explicit follow-up, and he confessed in 2009 that the Fifty States Project was only ever intended as a "promotional gimmick."
Nevertheless, Illinois remains one of Stevens' most popular albums, viewed by many critics and fans as the perfect synthesis of the sonic, lyrical, and thematic elements he has trafficked in throughout his career. With its sweeping Baroque Pop and intimate indie folk compositions, its evocative storytelling, and its unique blending of religious, historical, and personal themes, Illinois is the benchmark his output has been judged against ever since. (It is currently tied with 2015's Carrie & Lowell as Stevens' highest-scoring studio album on Metacritic, and is the site's top album for 2005.)
Tracklist (non-instrumental tracks in bold):
- "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" (2:08)
- "The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and I Will Continue to Fight Them Until They are Off Our Lands!'" (2:14)
- "Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition - Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)" (6:45)
- "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." (3:19)
- "Jacksonville" (5:24)
- "A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons" (0:47)
- "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" (3:03)
- "One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' for the Pullman!" (0:06)
- "Chicago" (6:04)
- "Casimir Pulaski Day" (5:53)
- "To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament, and It Involves an Inner Tube, Bath Mats, and 21 Able-bodied Men"note (1:40)
- "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" (6:17)
- "Prairie Fire That Wanders About" (2:11)
- "A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze" (0:19)
- "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!" (5:23)
- "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!" (5:09)
- "Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell" (0:40)
- "In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth" (0:35)
- "The Seer's Tower" (3:53)
- "The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders (Part I: The Great Frontier - Part II: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now)" (7:02)
- "Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King Of Swing, to Name a Few" (0:46)
- "Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals as I Run" (4:21)
Stevens originally intended for Illinois to be a two-disc Distinct Double Album, but eventually scrapped the idea. He released The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album (a 21-track companion compilation) the year after the original album's release.
In 2024 a dance musical adaptation of the album titled simply Illinoise with choreography by Justin Peck was staged in Chicago and upstate New York ahead of a Broadway premiere in April 2024.
Illinois contains examples of the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Illinois proved to be the second and final installment of Sufjan's so-called "Fifty States Project," and he claimed later that he never really intended to complete it (though there is some evidence to suggest that Carrie & Lowell may have originally been conceived as an Oregon-based followup).
- Album Intro Track: "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" is a short, gentle piano piece which serves as a sort of prologue before the bombastic fanfare of "The Black Hawk War" and the peppy, multi-part "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!".
- Album Title Drop: Many times, reasonably enough. ("Illinois", that is. Not the longer title.)
- All Take and No Give: God Himself, according to "Casimir Pulaski Day":All the glory when He took our place
But He took my shoulders and He shook my face
And He takes and He takes and He takes... - Alternate Album Cover: The first pressing included Superman mid-flight on the cover art; both Stevens and his label, Asthmatic Kitty, mistakenly assumed that the character was already in the public domain. After consulting with DC Comics, the label was allowed to sell off the copies that had already been manufactured, albeit with a balloon sticker on the jewel case covering Superman, and edited the cover art for subsequent pressings to either airbrush Superman out or replace him with the balloons. The 10th anniversary vinyl reissue, meanwhile, replaced him with Marvel Comics' Blue Marvel. Copies with the original Superman cover are now rare collector's items.
- Anachronic Order: The second stanza of "Casimir Pulaski Day" (about the Love Interest's father committing suicide) chronologically belongs at the end of the song.
- Baroque Pop: A modern classic of the genre. The album is absolutely awash with strings, horns, and woodwinds.
- Big "OMG!": Sufjan does one in "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." after noting how Gacy killed 27 teenage boys and young men. Especially interesting is how it isn't traditionally yelled but softly and beautifully cooed.
- Bigger Is Better: Illinois is probably Sufjan's most maximalist LP, as demonstrated by everything from the long titles and big concept to the 22-song track count and hour-plus run time to the symphonic orchestration.
- Boléro Effect: "Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals as I Run" combines this with Minimalism, à la Steve Reich, in the most glorious way.
- Book Ends: The album opens with the squeaking of a piano stool and two short introductory tracks, and then goes into the first full Epic Rocking, two-part song on the album, "Come On, Feel the Illinoise," which opens with a piano riff and is in Uncommon Time. The last Epic Rocking, two-part song on the album, "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders," also opens with a piano riff and is in Uncommon Time. It is followed by two short closing tracks and the squeaking of a piano stool.
- Call-Back:
- "Chicago" reuses a section of melody from "The Transfiguration" (from Seven Swans).
- A portion of the melody from "Upper Peninsula" is reused in "They Are Night Zombies...".
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: Illinois initially had cover artwork with Superman flying through the sky in the background. Shortly after releasing the album, the record label realized they never got permission from DC Comics to use Superman's likeness. To prevent a lawsuit, they took every copy that hadn't been sold yet and slapped a sticker of three balloons over the Man of Steel. Later reprintings were less clumsy and edited the cover art itself to replace Supes with either empty sky or the three balloons; and the 10-year anniversary edition has the Chicago-born superhero Blue Marvel in Superman's place (whose use on the cover has been approved by Marvel).
- Concept Album: It's all about the state of Illinois.
- Cradling Your Kill: The titular "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." did this to his victims.
- Crappy Holidays: "Casimir Pulaski Day" is both a darker and more quirky than usual twist on this trope, concerning the death by cancer of the narrator's love interest during the eponymous state holiday (which honors a Polish Revolutionary War hero).
- Crisis of Faith: "Casimir Pulaski Day" revolves around the narrator suffering one after the death of a loved one due to bone cancer, musing over the emptiness of his religious practices and beliefs as a result.
- "Days of the Week" Song: "Casimir Pulaski Day", which lists Tuesday and Sunday and ends on a Monday (i.e. the titular holiday).
- Denser and Wackier: Illinois took the formula from Michigan but made the compositions more baroque, the song titles more manic, the Shout Outs more frequent, and the cover art more tongue-in-cheek.
- Distinct Double Album: The album was originally supposed to be this, but eventually the idea was scrapped as "presumptuous" and "arrogant'; the
cut songs were released a year later as The Avalanche. That said, the cover art for The Avalanche echoes that of Illinois, and the two albums are thematically linked by their connection to the state of Illinois. - Driven to Suicide: Implied to be the case for the father of the ill girl from "Casimir Pulaski Day" ("...and he drove his car into the Navy Yard").
- Either/Or Title: The album itself, along with several individual tracks.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The titles of several of the instrumental interludes:
- "One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' For The Pullman" (has only one lyric: "Whoo-hoo!")
- "A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze" (20 seconds of a droning synth)
- "Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few" (almost a minute of variations on a single trumpet note)
- Folk Music: Contains a few straightforward examples—most notably "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." and "Casimir Pulaski Day"—interspersed between the more orchestral tracks.
- Flyover Country: Played With, deconstructed, and subverted. The eponymous state (or at least the large chunk of it that isn't Chicago) is often portrayed this way in pop culture. By choosing to focus on such a supposedly boring state full of Everytown, America-type locales, Sufjan is able to dig deep into the surprisingly fascinating history and culture and make some bigger points about America itself.
- Ghost Town: "They Are Night Zombies..." references numerous Illinois ghost towns.
- Grief Song: "Casimir Pulaski Day" concerns the death of the young narrator's love interest and the grief spiral which follows.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Not as much as on some Sufjan albums, but there are still a few notable cases. See
Ho Yay on the YMMV page. - Instrumentals: About half the tracks on the album, though most of them are little more than segues between the longer, non-instrumental songs (not to mention a pretense for more Illinois references, hence the ridiculously long titles).
- Listing Cities: The refrain of "They are Night Zombies!..." spells out the names of no fewer than fifteen Illinois ghost towns.
- Location Song: Pretty much every song is tied at least loosely to a specific Illinois location.
- Lonely Piano Piece: "The Seer’s Tower" is a desolate-sounding, piano-led piece with themes of solitude and parental abandonment.
- Lost in the Maize: There's a short instrumental track about a real-life corn maze, titled "A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze".
- Love Nostalgia Song: "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades..." is a wistful reflection on an innocent same-sex kiss in the narrator's youth.
- Miniscule Rocking: The album has a number of brief tracks (with overly-long titles like "A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But For Very Good Reasons" or "One Last 'Whoo-hoo!' for the Pullman") ranging from 6 to 48 seconds long, which basically just serve as a coda for the preceding track. For some of these, you'd have to pay attention to your music player to even notice that they're separate tracks.
- Mood Whiplash:
- The VERY dark "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." leads directly into the much more upbeat and optimistic "Jacksonville."
- The joyous "Chicago" is directly followed by (and juxtaposed with) the mournful, tear-inducing "Casimir Pulaski Day".
- Multi-Part Episode:
- "Come On, Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)".
- "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders (Part I: The Great Frontier — Part II: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now)".
- Murder Ballad: "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." is all about the life and murders of the titular serial killer.
- Musical Pastiche: "Out of Egypt, Into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt From My Sandals as I Run" is a pretty clear tribute to minimalist composer Steve Reich (particularly what may be his most famous and influential piece, Music for 18 Musicians). Sufjan has acknowledged Reich's influence on his music, and it is apparent in many of his instrumental passages if you know what to listen for, but here he seems to have intended to make Reich's influence obvious.
- Noodle Implements: Used in the title of "To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament..." across several different versions in the album's various vinyl releases. (The title on the CD version omits everything after "Predicament.") Still no indication of what the idea is in any of these, though.
- The song's title on the original vinyl release ends with "...and It Involves an Inner Tube, Bath Mats, and 21 Able-bodied Men."
- On an alternative vinyl release of the album, the title ends with "...and It Involves Tube Socks, a Paper Airplane, and Twenty-two Able-bodied Men."
- The pre-release track list of the alternative release further listed the song title as ending with "...and It Involves Shoe String, a Lavender Garland, and Twelve Strong Women."
- "Not So Different" Remark: "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." contains several examples.
- After noting how many young boys Gacy killed, Sufjan asks "Are you one of them?", a question possibly posed towards Gacy himself, since he was abused as a child in the same way that he abused his victims, and therefore perpetuated a vicious cycle.
- Sufjan ends the song by making such a remark of himself and Gacy. According to him, this was inspired by his real sentiments on Gacy while researching him for the song; seeing the same questioning of the direct source of Gacy's horrific behavior recur in his research led him to the conclusion that human nature is more complex than pure cause-and-effect, and that all people have the capacity to murder. (It could also have been influenced by Sufjan's Christian faith and its belief in the inherent sinfulness in every person.) To this end, he found himself empathetic with Gacy's nature, as disturbing as it was for him to admit.And in my best behavior,
I am really just like him.
Look beneath the floorboards
for the secrets I have hid.
- The Place: The state of Illinois as a whole, and many of its individual towns and landmarks.
- "Psycho" Strings: "They Are Night Zombies!..." has some rather shrill violins, in keeping with its horror movie motif.
- Pun-Based Title:
- "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!"
- "The Seer's Tower" (referring to the Willis Tower, once known as the Sears Tower).
- Rearrange the Song: In addition to the one on the album, Sufjan has released four alternate versions of "Chicago": the acoustic version, the "adult contemporary easy listening" version, the "Multiple Personality Disorder" version, and the demo version. All but the last of these appear on The Avalanche.
- Repurposed Pop Song: "Chicago" got a lot of play; it was used in the trailers for Little Miss Sunshine and several TV shows in quick succession.
- Shout-Out: A whole lot of them:
- Songs on the album mention Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln; politician Stephen A. Douglas; Helen Keller; serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr.; black preacher A.W. Jackson; social activist Jane Addams; musician Benny Goodman; baseball player Joe Jackson; as well as the Chicago Cubs and their associated goat curse.
- "The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts" is about Superman being created in Illinois. Superman was also infamously included on initial editions of the album but removed to avoid issues with copyright.
- The title of ''Come On Feel the Illinoise!" is a play on Slade's "Cum On Feel the Noize".
- The song uses a saxophone part from "Close to Me" by The Cure.
- Carl Sandburg (or, rather, his ghost) appears as a character in the second part of the song.
- "Chicago" is very loosely inspired by the Carl Sandburg poem of the same name.
- "The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders" mentions "The Great Frontier", a book by Walter Prescott Webb on the settlement of the American West.
- "They Are Night Zombies!.." fittingly mentions Night of the Living Dead (1968).
- "In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth" bases its name off of part of the Lincoln Memorial epitaph ("In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he [Lincoln] saved the union").
- Shown Their Work: Sufjan's research for the album was extensive, as evinced by the sheer number of Shout Outs to both famous and more arcane facets of Illinois history.
- Singer Namedrop: Found in the title of "A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze".
- Spelling Song: The refrain of "They Are Night Zombies!.." ("I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!", as well as the names of various ghost towns in the state).
- Stealth Pun: In "The Predatory Wasp...", Sufjan confesses, "I can't explain the state that I'm in." In the context of the song, he's referring to his emotional confusion, but many listeners have noted that the whole album is in fact an attempt to "explain" a different kind of state.
- Sympathy for the Devil: "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." is a song that tells the story of a serial killer and rapist not in a demonizing light, but one that's emotive and pitying. Sufjan even ends the song by claiming that he and Gacy are, at the end of the day, not so different.And in my best behavior, I am really just like him.
- Take That!: "Come On, Feel the Illinoise!" is a diatribe against commercialism and bad art.
- Teenage Death Song: "Casimir Pulaski Day" (although it's possible that the characters are still in their preteens).
- Uncommon Time: Used a lot, but "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders" deserves a special mention, with passages in both 5/8 and 6/8.
- Wanderlust Song: "Chicago".If I was crying
in the van, with my friend
it was for freedom
from myself and from the land. - Zombie Apocalypse: The subject of the aptly named "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!"
