Sufjan Stevens shares new single ‘A Running Start’
SUFJAN STEVENS SHARES NEW SINGLE ‘A RUNNING START’ AND FIRST LOOK AT 48-PAGE BOOK OF ART AND ESSAYS
NEW ALBUM JAVELIN OUT THIS FRIDAY (6 OCTOBER) VIA ASTHMATIC KITTY RECORDS
“The work of a master”
Sunday Times ‘Hottest Tracks’
“A devastatingly beautiful breakup song from the master of understated heartache”
The Observer ‘Hot Tracks’
“This is as good an album as Stevens has ever made, perhaps even the best”
5/5 The Arts Desk
“Sufjan Stevens’ most remarkable talents lay in emotionally resonant songwriting that really does not require many extra trimmings or gimmicks to move the listener to the core”
9/10 Loud and Quiet
“Javelin is a study in contradictions: precise songs about messy situations, quiet music that speaks loudly, a beloved artist”
8/10 Uncut
“This driven, inscrutable creative still shines brightest when primarily armed with acoustic guitar and voice”
4/5 Mojo
“A heartsick high. No one yearns like Sufjan Stevens”
4/5 The Skinny
Watch the lyric video for ‘A Running Start’ here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoFJbrNkyBw
View the book here:
https://javelin.sufjan.com/art-book
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This Friday, Sufjan Stevens releases his highly anticipated new album, Javelin, and today, presents the final pre-release single, ‘A Running Start’, alongside a first look at the 48-page book of art and essays that accompanies the album. The ten songs on Javelin “unusually start out folky, but they rarely stay that way; they expand and billow” (The New York Times). This is abundantly clear on ‘A Running Start’, which begins with Stevens’ kinetic acoustic guitar, but swells into a vast sonic palette by its end. Every sound heard on the song is played by Stevens himself, with the exception of additional vocals Nedelle Torrisi, Hannah Cohen and Megan Lui.
‘A Running Start’ follows a trail of widely celebrated singles: ‘So You Are Tired‘, which was praised by The Sunday Times as “the work of a master”, and the recently shared ‘Will Anybody Ever Love Me?‘ – Javelin’s second single to be deemed Best New Track by Pitchfork, which said, “Stevens dramatizes a far-reaching feeling of desperation with a sound that’s bright and expansive”. Each track is a thrilling glimpse of Javelin’s combination of musical sweep and emotional breadth.
Javelin is accompanied by a 48-page book of art and essays all created by Stevens, including a series of meticulous collages, cut-up catalog fantasies, puff-paint word clouds, and iterative color fields. The ten short essays offer little glimpses into loves and losses that have shaped him, and, in turn, these songs.Head to AnOther Magazine to read Stevens’ “poetic, profound and highly personal” essays and Document Journal to see the art. You can also now view the full book for the first time here:
https://javelin.sufjan.com/art-book.
Pre-order Javelin here:
https://sufjanstevens.lnk.to/javelin
Photo Courtesy of Sufjan Stevens
High-res images can be found here