Though Stevens had announced plans to make an album for each of the 50 U.S. states, beginning the series with the albums 'Michigan' (2003) and 'Illinois' (2005), he has since then somewhat retracted the statement. "Sufjan Stevens is not going to write a record for each of the 50 states after all" was the original text included on the online liner notes for 'Mews Too: An Asthmatic Kitty Compilation' , a disc released on February 7, 2006. This statement was possibly included as a joke, as the text has since been removed and the current liner notes related to Sufjan Stevens reads: "Sufjan Stevens can fold a fitted-sheet (he once worked as a professional folder in a commercial Laundromat)."
Background
Stevens was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in the city of Petoskey in that same state. He attended Hope College on the west coast of Michigan.
The name Sufjan is an Arabic/Persian name that predates Islam and most famously belonged to Abu Sufyan, a figure from early Islamic history. It has been mentioned in the press that the name was given to Stevens by the leader of Subud, a spiritual sect to which his parents belonged when he was born. Stevens has stated that the name is of Armenian origin and means "comes with a sword," and that it is "a charming militaristic Muslim name." In fact the name is not Armenian, and Armenia is a predominantly Christian country.
Sufjan is also the plural form of Sufi in Persian . Sufi is a practitioner of Sufism .This word is frequently used in the old Persian literature ,specially Sufi poetry .
His brother, marathonist Marzuki Stevens, has trained to compete in the 2008 Olympic trials, and has played on two of Sufjan's albums.
A multi-instrumentalist, Stevens plays the banjo, guitar, drums, and several other instruments, often playing all of these on his albums through the use of multi-tracking. While in school, he studied the oboe and English horn, which he also plays on his albums; he is one of the few musicians in popular music to use these instruments.
Career
Sufjan Stevens began his musical career as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band from Holland, Michigan. He also played (and continues to play) various instruments for Danielson Famile. While in school at Hope College, Stevens wrote and recorded his debut solo album, A Sun Came, which he released on Asthmatic Kitty Records, a record label he founded with his step-father in 1999. He later moved to New York City, where he was enrolled in a writing program at the New School for Social Research.
While in New York, Stevens composed and recorded the music for his second album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, a song cycle based around the animals of the Chinese Zodiac that ventured into electronica.
Stevens followed this with the first of his 50 states albums, a collection of folk songs and instrumentals inspired by his home state of Michigan. The result, the expansive Michigan, included odes to cities including Detroit and Flint, the Upper Peninsula, and vacation areas such as Tahquamenon Falls. Melded into the scenic descriptions and characters are his own declarations of faith in God, sorrow, love and the regeneration of Michigan.
Following the release of Michigan, Stevens compiled a collection of songs recorded previously into a side project, the Christian folk album Seven Swans, which was released in March 2004.
Next he released the second in the 50 states projects, entitled Come On Feel The Illinoise!. Among the subjects explored on Come On Feel The Illinoise! are the cities of Chicago, Decatur and Jacksonville, the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, the poet Carl Sandburg, and Mississippi Palisades State Park.
He has contributed to the music of Denison Witmer, Soul Junk, Half-handed Cloud, Brother Danielson, Danielson Famile, Serena Maneesh, Castanets, and Liz Janes. He played piano on for fellow Brooklyn musician's The National's album 2007 Boxer. A cover of "She Is" is included on the album Dream Brother, released in the United States on January 31, 2006.
Sufjan contributed a lot to the sound of the 2001 Liz Janes album Done Gone Fire as he engineered, recorded, produced and arranged it as well as playing many addition instruments.
Sufjan recently recorded with Rosie Thomas and Denison Witmer playing banjo and providing vocals. It is unknown how this record will be released. In April 2006, Pitchfork erroneously announced that Stevens and Thomas were having a baby together, but were forced to print a retraction. Witmer and Thomas later admitted it was an April Fools' prank.
The Fifty States Project
Beginning with Michigan, Stevens announced an intent to write an album for each of the 50 U.S. states, although in interviews he wavers between utter sincerity and self-deprecating irony when describing the idea.
Stevens spent the second half of 2004 researching and writing material for the second of these projects, this time focusing his efforts on Illinois. As with Michigan, Stevens used the state of Illinois as a leaping-off point for his more personal explorations of faith, family, love, and location.
The widely acclaimed Illinois was the highest rated album of 2005 on the Metacritic review aggregator site, based on glowing reviews from Pitchfork, The Onion A/V Club, Spin, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and The Guardian. The 2006 PLUG Independent Music Awards awarded Stevens with the Album Of The Year, Best Album Art/Packaging, and Male Artist Of The Year. Pitchfork Media and Paste Magazine named Come On Feel The Illinoise! as the editors' choice for best album of 2005 and Stevens received the 2005 Pantheon prize, awarded to albums selling 500,000 copies or fewer, for Come On Feel The Illinoise!. In April of 2006, Stevens announced that 21 pieces of music he had culled from the Come On Feel The Illinoise! recording sessions would be incorporated into a new album, called The Avalanche. The album was released on July 11, 2006.
While there were other projects rumored to be released following 2005's Illinois, by 2009 and his live album The BQE, he was seemingly finished with the project, calling it "Such a joke", and accepting that the project was too massive and too cliché to ever reach an end.
Religious themes
Many of Stevens' songs have religious and spiritual allusions, but his album Seven Swans has the most direct religious references. Stevens has expressed that he is Christian, but does not overtly advertise this aspect of himself in his music. Stevens has also stated that he does not try to make music "with a message", or music for the sake of preaching. "I don't think music media is the real forum for theological discussions," says Stevens. "I think I've said things and sung about things that probably weren't appropriate for this kind of forum. And I just feel like it's not my work or my place to be making claims and statements, because I often think it's misunderstood."
The songs 'Abraham', 'Seven Swans', 'To Be Alone With You', 'We Won't Need Legs To Stand' and 'The Transfiguration' directly address Christianity on the album Seven Swans. In 'Abraham', Sufjan recounts the Old Testament story in the Book of Genesis when Abraham, ordered by God as a test of faith, leads his son, Isaac, up a mountain and prepares to kill him, as commanded (but before God sends an angel to intervene). The lyrics of 'The Transfiguration' follow the Biblical accounts of Jesus' Transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9: 1-8, and Luke 9:28-36.
Michigan and Come On Feel The Illinoise! are packed with Christian references and metaphors. Michigan contains "Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie", which implores "Oh Lamb of God! Tell us Your perfect design and give us the rod" ("Lamb of God" being a Biblical name for Jesus Christ). The song "Oh God, Where Are You Now?" asks God to "hold me now", to "save somehow", searching for God in the midst of personal turmoil. "There's no other man who could save the dead," the song states. The album closer, 'Vito's Ordination Song', was apparently originally written for Sufjan's friend Vito Aiuto, and its lyrics allude directly to Psalm 139 ("I always knew you. In your mother's arms, I have called your name", "I've made a crown for you"). The song speaks of "When the bridegroom comes" - the New Testament speaks of Jesus Christ as being the Bridegroom and the Church His Bride, finally being united together at the End of Time.
Come On Feel The Illinoise! features the song 'Chicago' with its refrain of "You came to take us, to recreate us", and 'Decatur' has the chorus of "It's the great I Am" ("I Am" being the name the Lord reveals Himself by to Moses in Exodus 3:14). "Casimir Pulaski Day" speaks of "All the glory that the Lord has made" in the midst of personal pain and loss. "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" has the lyrics: "Lamb of God, we sound the horn. Hallelujah!" One instrumental passage has the title of "In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth". "The Seer's Tower" speaks of Emanuel, "With His sword, with His robe He comes dividing man from brothers" (an interesting side note is that "Sufjan" actually means "comes with a sword"). Indeed, the vast majority of songs of Come On Feel The Illinoise! contain lyric lines which can be readily identified as having a basis in Stevens' faith in Christ.
Sufjan's second, electronic album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, contains a song cycle based on of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, culminating with the song "Year of our Lord". Stevens released the original, Christian-themed song "God'll Ne'er Let You Down" on the "To Spirit Back the Mews" compilation on Asthmatic Kitty. The officially unreleased Christmas albums Sufjan Stevens made and then compiled into Songs for Christmas feature suitably Christmas and Christian themed music, both originals and covers of hymns and traditional songs.
Trivia
On Snow Patrol's 2006 album Eyes Open there is a reference to Sufjan and the song "Chicago" in the song "Hands Open" - "Put Sufjan Stevens on and we'll play your favorite song/"Chicago" bursts to life and your sweet smile remembers you."
Sufjan has twice been featured on the FOX television show "The OC". "To Be Alone With You" and "For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti" can be heard on episodes 202 and 315, respectively.
Sufjan Stevens' music has appeared twice on the Showtime dark comedy "Weeds". "All The Trees Of The Field Will Clap Their Hands" appears on S1E02 over the end credits, and "Holland" appears near the end of S2E10.
Two of Sufjan's songs appear on the soundtrack to "Little Miss Sunshine": "Chicago" and "No Man's Land"
The song "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." appears on the 3rd season of the tv show "Nip/Tuck".
Several songs can be heard on the movie "Driving Lessons"
You can also hear snippets in between CSI shows on 5US
In the TV show "Austin City Limits", he mentioned that when he was a kid, he and his best friend saw something in the sky which they couldn't figure out. They thought it was a spaceship or UFO first, then an eagle or a dragon. Finally they realized it was a giant wasp. He wrote the song "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!" about the incident and mentioned that the reason they (the band) all have wings on stage is to overcome his fear of flying things.
The song "Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)" is heard in the 2012 "World of Red Bull" television commercial. he is quoted as saying "selling out never looked so good." and "somebody had to pay for all of that Christmas confetti." referring to his recent Christmas album and supporting tour.
In 2017 Stevens wrote two Original Songs to be featured in the gay drama film “Call me by your Name”, entitled “Mystery of Love” and “Visions of Gideon”. He also made a reworked version of his Song “Futile Devices” which is also featured on the soundtrack.
Website:http://sufjan.com
Xmas In The Room
Sufjan Stevens Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
No candy canes, no Santa Claus
For as the day of rest draws near
It's just the two of us this year
No silver bells or mistletoe
We'll kiss and watch our TV show
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
'Til it's Christmas in the room
No traffic jams, no ice and storm
Far in the house the fire is warm
No Christmas tree, no great parade
It's just an ordinary day
No parties planned, no place to go
It's just the two of us alone
And in the house we see a light
That comes what we feel inside
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
'Til it's Christmas in the room
'Til it's Christmas in the room
Oh, I can't see the day when we'll die
But I don't care to think of silence
For now I hear you laughing
The greatest joy is like the sunrise
No gifts to give, they're all right here
Inside our hearts, the glorious cheer
And in the house we seek a light
That comes from what we know inside
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
'Til it's Christmas in the room
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
Like it's Christmas in the room
Like it's Christmas in the room
Sufjan Stevens's "Christmas in the Room" is an intimate song that portrays the simplicity and contentment of a couple who have chosen to spend a quiet Christmas in the comfort of their own home, without the traditional Christmas fanfare. The lyrics evoke a sense of peace and joy that comes from valuing the presence of one another above material things. The absence of Christmas decorations, gifts, and parties is replaced by the warmth of the fire, laughter, and togetherness. Instead of the usual holiday cheer, the couple finds joy in each other's company, experiencing the greatest joy like it's the sunrise.
The verse "Oh, I can't see the day when we'll die, But I don't care to think of silence" speaks to the depth of the love that they share, a love that does not fear the future or the unknown but is content to enjoy the present moment. The song is a beautiful reminder to cherish the simple things that can often be overlooked during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. The chorus "I'll come to you, I'll sing to you, Like it's Christmas in the room, I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you, 'Til it's Christmas in the room," is one of those simple but powerful verses that sums up the essence of the song's message: that love and togetherness are the true spirit of Christmas.
Line by Line Meaning
No travel bags, no shopping malls
We don't need material possessions to celebrate the holiday season.
No candy canes, no Santa Claus
We're not concerned with the commercialized version of Christmas.
For as the day of rest draws near
As Christmas approaches,
It's just the two of us this year
We're spending the holidays together, just the two of us.
No silver bells or mistletoe
We're making the most of what we have, without extravagant decorations.
We'll kiss and watch our TV show
We'll enjoy each other's company in a simple way.
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
I want to show you love and affection through music.
Like it's Christmas in the room
Even though we're not surrounded by traditional Christmas elements, we can still feel the warmth of the holiday season by being together.
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
I want to share joy and happiness with you.
'Til it's Christmas in the room
I will keep doing these things until we feel the holiday spirit all around us.
No traffic jams, no ice and storm
We don't have the stresses that come with holiday travel and weather conditions.
Far in the house the fire is warm
We're cozy and comfortable indoors.
No Christmas tree, no great parade
We're not worried about the traditional aspects of Christmas.
It's just an ordinary day
But we're making it special by being together and appreciating each other.
No parties planned, no place to go
We're content with staying home and enjoying each other's company.
It's just the two of us alone
We have each other, and that's all we need to be happy.
And in the house we see a light
We feel warmth and joy in our home together.
That comes what we feel inside
Our happiness comes from within us, not from external things.
Oh, I can't see the day when we'll die
I don't want to think about a future without you.
But I don't care to think of silence
I want to cherish and appreciate the time we have together right now.
For now I hear you laughing
Your laughter brings me joy and happiness.
The greatest joy is like the sunrise
The best things in life, like our love and happiness, are like the beauty of a sunrise.
No gifts to give, they're all right here
We don't need anything material because our love for each other is the best gift we could have.
Inside our hearts, the glorious cheer
We feel the holiday spirit from within us, not from external sources.
And in the house we seek a light
We're looking for happiness and joy within our home and each other.
That comes from what we know inside
Our happiness comes from within ourselves, not from external things.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@alexanderarea6157
No travel plans, no shopping malls
No candy canes, no Santa Claus
For as the day of rest draws near
It's just the two of us this year
No silver bells or mistletoe
We'll kiss and watch our TV shows
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
'Til it's Christmas in the room
No traffic jams, no ice and storm
Far in the house the fire is warm
No Christmas tree, no great parade
It's just an ordinary day
No parties planned, no place to go
It's just the two of us alone
And in the house we see a light
That comes from what we feel inside
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
'Til it's Christmas in the room
'Til it's Christmas in the room
Oh, I can see the day when we'll die
But I don't care to think of silence
For now I hear you laughing
The greatest joy is like the sunrise
No gifts to give, they're all right here
Inside our hearts, the glorious cheer
And in the house we see a light
That comes from what we know inside
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
'Til it's Christmas in the room
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
Like it's Christmas in the room
Like it's Christmas in the room
@alexanderarea6157
No travel plans, no shopping malls
No candy canes, no Santa Claus
For as the day of rest draws near
It's just the two of us this year
No silver bells or mistletoe
We'll kiss and watch our TV shows
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
'Til it's Christmas in the room
No traffic jams, no ice and storm
Far in the house the fire is warm
No Christmas tree, no great parade
It's just an ordinary day
No parties planned, no place to go
It's just the two of us alone
And in the house we see a light
That comes from what we feel inside
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
'Til it's Christmas in the room
'Til it's Christmas in the room
Oh, I can see the day when we'll die
But I don't care to think of silence
For now I hear you laughing
The greatest joy is like the sunrise
No gifts to give, they're all right here
Inside our hearts, the glorious cheer
And in the house we see a light
That comes from what we know inside
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
'Til it's Christmas in the room
I'll come to you, I'll sing to you
Like it's Christmas in the room
I'll dance with you, I'll laugh with you
Like it's Christmas in the room
Like it's Christmas in the room
@TheWingus
I listen to this almost weekly and get teary eyed every time
@bella-kk3mm
It's beautiful and perfect, it just make me feel a lot of things that I can't explain.
@supertavio2
Same!!
@taleswapper81
I dunno who could possibly give this a thumbs down, but I bet they desperately need a hug.
@christianleblanc2842
My wife and I have retired to Ecuador. We go to Mass, have a tree, and attend a parade, but this strikes a chord with how we have Christmas now.
@lukestrong7569
This song hurts a lot more in 2020 lol
@Alicia-vq8jg
I literally assumed he wrote it for 2020 😭
@adrianmh
This gets better with each passing year.
@frankq_a9826
This song it's just amazing