Album Review: Javelin - Sufjan Stevens

It had been nearly a decade since indie music legend Sufjan Stevens released a solo singer-songwriter studio album when he announced his 2023 return: Javelin. Before venturing into more experimental territory with albums like 2020’s The Ascension, Stevens found success sharing his impeccable storytelling skills with now classic projects Illinois and Carrie & Lowell. Not one to release an album just for the sake of doing so, Stevens instead releases reflections packed full of emotional revelation and catharsis for his fanbase to relate to. Javelin doesn’t divert from this formula; while this is an exciting and triumphant return for Stevens, it comes with a heaviness in the context of its origin. In its accompanying message, Stevens shared that he tragically lost a life partner earlier this year, and it quickly became evident that this project is an embodiment of his grief. His recent diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome also shapes this project’s context — Stevens is navigating unimaginably difficult circumstances, but doing so with a musical beauty and intentionality in ways only he could. His most personal project yet, Javelin is an accomplishment in both storytelling and thematic resolution, and perhaps his best work to date.

The album’s themes and ideas resonate much stronger in the context of loss and grief, such as the opening track “Goodbye Evergreen,” with lines like “Goodbye evergreen / You know I love you / But everything Heaven-sent / Must burn out in the end.” Lamenting his fear, describing his circumstances as “poisoned pain,” and coming to grips with this new reality is his heartfelt way of setting the stage for what’s to come on this project. The following “A Running Start” turns back the clock to a more joyful time in Stevens’ life — the lovely beginnings of a relationship that celebrates the beauty of new romance and the sublime feeling of being in nature. The album’s turbulent dichotomy of emotions comes next with “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”, a highlight on the project that eagerly and tragically questions if the narrator will be able to again recapture the love that he has just depicted and eventually lost.

“Everything That Rises” utilizes acoustic guitar and ethereal background vocals to elevate its many biblical and literary references. “Genuflecting Ghost” is a haunting and cascading ballad of communicating to a parted loved one. “My Red Little Fox” sees the narrator begging their lost love to visit them from beyond, to “kiss (them) from within … kiss (them) like the wind.” These tracks all effectively and chillingly develop a tragic narrative and aesthetic that acts as a through line for the rest of the project.

The album’s back half is just as strong and powerful as its compelling start. “So You Are Tired” is an all-time Sufjan track that creates a melancholic hole in its listener, carrying an emotional weight of relationship struggles unlike most songs I’ve heard attempt to do so. There’s a addictive and hopeful beauty to this song’s instrumentation that stands in stark contrast to its helpless lyrics. The album’s title track captures the essence of its core messaging: that those in relationships hold power in restraint over one another, and that the recognition of that ability to resist inflicting pain is both a necessary and terrible realization to face, particularly in relationships as true and complicatedly beautiful as Sufjan’s. “Shit Talk” expounds on these themes, reflecting on the intricate complexities of forgiveness, grace, and compassionate understanding of a partner’s shortcomings, especially when choosing unconditional love for them. “There’s A World” is a re-imaging of a Neil Young classic in Stevens’ aesthetic, serving as a hopeful and appreciative closer to an emotionally-complicated project.

There is beauty in struggle. Hard times bring loved ones closer together. Grief is real and unavoidable. On Javelin, Sufjan Stevens concisely and gorgeously reveals the intimate and unimaginably challenging details of his relationship with his partner, himself, and the world around him. Simultaneously a deep look into an artist’s psyche and a spellbinding, relatable, and necessary piece of art, Javelin is one of the greatest musical accomplishments about the beauty in grief and hardship in my lifetime. I wish Sufjan all the best and thank him for the magnificent art that he gives to the world.

Favorite tracks: “Goodbye Evergreen”, “A Running Start”, “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”, “Everything That Rises”, “My Red Little Fox”, “So You Are Tired”, “Javelin (To Have And To Hold)”, “Shit Talk”, “There’s A World”

SCORE: 9/10