Even the most casual Sufjan Stevens fan would know that he is already into conceptual albums. He made a fleeting, quixotic plea to make fifty albums for all fifty states (in which he only created two--albeit two classics), he made an instrumental album about the Chinese Zodiac, and even his least conceptual album, "Carrie & Lowell," does not function without at least an entire, seamless, focused listen-through and an an artist profile or two.
So, it is not without shock that Sufjan took part in an album about the Milky Way. It was almost to the point of self-parody, in fact, if it were not taken into account that the live performances for this started in 2011, and three more people — Bryce Dessner, James McAllister, and Nico Muhley — were credited as well in making it. However, although this is not necessarily self-"parody", one can say that "Planetarium "is the most "Sufjan" album in that he goes all in on the concept, more so than any album before. Each song is named after either a planet, star, asteroid, matter, or event ("In The Beginning") in the Milky Way (along with its interesting song in which "Mars" comes after "Uranus" and "Pluto" comes after "Moon.")
And whereas an album like "Illinois" talks about the concept subject matter, such as "John Wayne Gacy Jr.," while still bringing it back personally, like "Casimir Pulanski Day," Sufjan seems to be full-out talking about the planets, merely referencing personal reflections in vague metaphors, like "Jupiter is the loneliest planet" in "Jupiter," and half-hearted callbacks, like "Methodist summer camp/You show me yours/I show you mine" in "Venus." So maybe this album is both the most Sufjan and least Sufjan, all the fat but none of the protein.
This is not to say that "Planetarium "is a bad album. With a crew like this, it's hard to. The best way to describe the journey through "Planetarium "would be what it's actually like to fly through space, seeing the planets: it's boring most of the time, and you're just waiting for the next big thing, but when does the next big thing happen? Wow. Take the unexpected beat drop in "Jupiter." It's hard-hitting, reminiscent of a beat of a Death Grips song. "Mars" is a full-out assault, equipped with an avalanche of vocoder stacked on top of autotune, giving Sufjan the sound of a prototypical martian. The song twists and turns pleasantly; each movement is suitable, and necessary.
The mostly strong start is brought to a halt, though, when we are met with more than ten minutes of interlude as in"Black Energy," "Sun," and "Tides." It's pleasant ambiance, but it comes off mostly as filler, filler resembling that of the B-side of "22, A Million", a filler that almost ruined the album for me. "Planetarium" doesn't really get back on its feet and stay there, either, after these interludes. "Pluto" has a nice string movement, but it stands above the rest of the track. "Saturn" has a driving EDM beat, but the treble-heavy production washes out some of the enjoyment with a more filtered, more hazy sound. One mustn't forget "Earth" since, at a hulking 15 minutes long, it takes up nearly a fourth of the already over-sized album. While this song does have some nice movements to it, it doesn't build like something like "Impossible Soul" did.
The album ends with "Mercury," a meditative, pleasant send-off with hushed, "Carrie And Lowell"-esque production/vocals. The frantic yet subdued piano gives a patient immediacy to the track, a huge breath of fresh air to the listener. The staccato guitar plucks feel the most like space, here, resembling Mercury going around and around the sun. It's funny because, despite the album being about the planets, not much of "Planetarium" was very planetary. On the other hand, the trip through the cosmos was not a personal journey, either; it was kind of in the middle, and it had a lot of ambiance to it. And this collaboration was not inherently good nor bad. Seeing the planets was amazing; just bring some reading material when you transit in between them. Rating:
6.4
