SUFJAN STEVENS

The BQE

2010-01-12

After the amazing collections of "Michigan" and "Illinois," leave it to Sufjan Stevens to tackle another historic-driven musical venture: the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (or BQE). Commissioned to do music and a film documentary, Stevens did meticulous research and delivered an instrumental soundtrack that intends to tell the story of this controversial roadway (which cuts through neighborhoods with hair-raising turns that make our own S-Curve look like a garden path). If you liked the instrumental passages in his previous discs, you will appreciate the layers of instruments and themes that he presents here. If you're wondering what's with the women with hula hoops on the CD jacket, Stevens makes the connection and contrast between the BQE and the invention of the hula hoop, invented the same year the expressway was completed. Hard to imagine what this guy will do next! Amazingly talented, often hyper-intellectual, never boring. 01/10 F-Esoteric (Instrumental) Michael J.

Quick Links:

More reviews tagged #Folk

  • reviewed 04/2014

    AMBER NICOLE
    Lead You The Way Back Home

  • reviewed 03/2008

    SALLY BARRIS
    Restless Soul

  • reviewed 05/2016

    Ken Atkins & The Honky Tonk Kind
    This Train

  • reviewed 05/2004

    Ryan Adams
    Love is Hell

  • reviewed 01/2007

    Marshall Rhodes
    Marshall Rhodes

  • reviewed 10/2015

    Hazel Ra
    The Shadows

Compiled by the WYCE Journalism Club

The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.