A joyous blend of dumb fun and sonic smarts with the talent that Stevens has been peddling for nearly 20 years to glue them together, this feels a fresh start in a career that didn’t exactly need one. Somehow, a wonderful surprise. Wow.
The richness and depth of the album calls for repeated and careful listening. Sufjan Stevens is a master of sound who makes its creative manipulation appear so easy.
Though some might find the odd track a bit noodly, I was rendered wonderfully weightless by a journey that delivered whole galaxies of nuance in a universal context.
It may very well be his most challenging and ambitious undertaking to date as well as a sign of the new era of Stevens to come.
The Ascension is one of Sufjan Stevens’ grandest, most ambitious works yet, and that’s quite the feat considering he’s one of the most ambitious musicians in his genre.
The Ascension sees him lay down new paths while very much corroborating his special, loved status.
The Ascension demonstrates a great deal of growth, expansion, and experimentation in Sufjan Stevens’ work. Not only is it one of his best album–if not his best–it is clearly a contender for Album Of The Year.
On this album he is sharing a more obscure, richly detailed approach which does an awful lot with a small, focused collection of sounds
The Ascension harks back to the heavy electronics of 2010’s Age of Adz but with adroit focus on the themes of existential dread and the quest for meaning with a bounty of angry yet hopeful songs that satisfy melodically and metaphysically.
The Ascension is almost too anxious to bear, but always draws you into its gravitational pull. In short, it’s a 2020 album about self-healing and the wounds that are still fresh.
The Ascension ranks with Carrie & Lowell as his most personal and affecting work to date.
There’s a stunning candour to the lyrics, though it gets a little stodgy in the mid-section and, at 80+ minutes, is a little more verbiage than the typical album. Yet we’re dealing with an untypical songwriter, and the last two tracks are among the best he’s ever written.
A sonic sibling to 2010’s electro-pop Age of Adz and a direct follow-up to 2015’s autobiographical, folk-orchestral Carrie and Lowell, The Ascension looks outward.
These are grand themes and, throughout, the record cosmically fuses together the epic and intimate.
The Ascension’s maximalist reckoning finds his horror at national affairs mirroring his own inner turbulence.
Both lyrically and musically, The Ascension appears to be driven by feeling rather than intense intellectualism. Here Stevens’ lyrics are suggestive, initiating a slow-burn response from the listener rather than the immediate dagger-to-the-heart specificity of Carrie & Lowell.
Certainly The Ascension is by no means perfect. Yet, Sufjan Stevens has created a work that deserves to heard. The more one listens, the more once begins to appreciate the density of this work and its ability to transform expectations.
A bloated and often beautiful portrait of political and emotional anxiety that longs for nothing more than to break away from the systems that brought us to this current moment.
There are undoubtedly some breathtaking songs on The Ascension, but its weaker moments instill a nagging feeling that the 80-minute album tends to overstay its welcome.
Though generally not lacking in beauty or scale, The Ascension has a handful of somewhat grating moments that make it harder to love as a holistic experience.
Both beguiling and frustrating, The Ascension is complex, bold and oddly lovable.
While Stevens often reaches great heights on The Ascension, he almost as often seems to get lost in his big ideas.
Ultimately, it’s those ethereal effects that color this album and give it its feel overall. You might find yourself scratching your head repeatedly, but in the end, you’ll feel like you’ve been strangely seduced.
The various depressive quips throughout Ascension feel more like self-parody than self-affirmation. On the upside, there is plenty of instrumental variety, though the lack of focus seems more the result of meandering at-home synth exploration than innovation.
Someone tweeted that "Run Away with Me" on this album was a cover of the Carly Rae Jepsen song, so i immediately jumped on spotify to listen. I was incredibly disappointed. Props to whoever trolled me tho.
this is the most direct mr. Stevens has ever been, and the honesty shines through. the complexity of ‘the ascension’ is result of sufjan’s drive for greatness; the mixing is on another level, so congrats to suf for that.
this first “major” release in five years is nothing that i expected, for even after hearing ‘aporia’ and all of his extremely experimental electronic projects, this is shockingly different.
“make me an offer i can not ... read more
"I shit my pants and wet the bed"
Man, I’ve been so excited for this album, it was honestly my most anticipated album of the year. And so after listening to it, I can say… That the hyped lived on to this album! Though let me get something straight, This is much different album than something like Carrie & Lowell and Illinois, because Sufjan Stevens dropped the whole folk genre and go for more experimental electronic sounds, I think some fans will be disappointed, and ... read more
"The Ascension" is an expansive and ambitious work that showcases Sufjan's mastery of indietronica and art pop.
The Ascension is one of Sufjan's better newer releases. It's a really solid, and occasionally fantastic foray into an electro-pop sound. There are a lot of great production choices on this, and it's overall a pretty effecting listen
1 | Make Me an Offer I Cannot Refuse 5:18 | 93 |
2 | Run Away With Me 4:07 | 89 |
3 | Video Game 4:15 | 88 |
4 | Lamentations 3:42 | 80 |
5 | Tell Me You Love Me 4:21 | 88 |
6 | Die Happy 5:46 | 81 |
7 | Ativan 6:32 | 83 |
8 | Ursa Major 3:42 | 79 |
9 | Landslide 5:04 | 82 |
10 | Gilgamesh 3:50 | 73 |
11 | Death Star 4:04 | 72 |
12 | Goodbye To All That 3:48 | 75 |
13 | Sugar 7:36 | 84 |
14 | The Ascension 5:56 | 87 |
15 | America 12:29 | 91 |
#1 | / | The New York Times: Jon Pareles |
#6 | / | NBHAP |
#8 | / | The Independent |
#9 | / | Piccadilly Records |
#11 | / | MondoSonoro |
#13 | / | Gaffa (Denmark) |
#13 | / | Under the Radar |
#15 | / | No Ripcord |
#16 | / | Northern Transmissions |
#17 | / | Gaffa (Sweden) |