Sufjan Stevens, Adele

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       Sufjan Stevens - Jacksonville off his 2005 album Come on Feel the Illinoise!

Sufjan Stevens is a different kind of artist. This album was the second and last of what he said was going to be a 50 part series of albums about each of the states, which he later said was just a gag. I'm disappointed that he didn't at least drag it out a little farther. His songs have a full orchestra sound and harmonized lyrics, so there ends up being a pretty busy feel to his songs. I haven't really ever explored what his lyrics are about, probably because I'm caught up in all of the music going on. Or perhaps it's because I spend all my time reading his song titles, which sometimes read like paragraphs. The longest being;

"The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!'"

Even though I haven't read into his lyrics, I love the music he makes on this album. Jacksonville is one of my favorites.

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       Adele - Rolling in the Deep, off of her 2011 album 21

Other than the Spice Girls when I was 9, I've never really been much into female british pop singers. However, I've now listened to both of Adele's albums and she sounds more like she's from 1960's Alabama than 21st century Britain. I can't say much other than she has a really good voice. This song's been all over the radio here, and strangely, it's pretty popular on the rock station. Ok, you can now stop laughing about the Spice Girls, I was 9.