Michigan | |
Type: | studio |
Artist: | Sufjan Stevens |
Cover: | michigan-stevens.jpg |
Recorded: | 2003 in multiple locations |
Label: | Sounds Familyre, Asthmatic Kitty/Secretly Canadian, Rough Trade |
Producer: | Sufjan Stevens |
Prev Title: | Enjoy Your Rabbit |
Prev Year: | 2001 |
Next Title: | Seven Swans |
Next Year: | 2004 |
Michigan (styled Sufjan Stevens Presents... Greetings from Michigan, the Great Lake State on the cover) is a concept album by American indie folk songwriter Sufjan Stevens, released on July 1, 2003, on Sounds Familyre, Asthmatic Kitty and Secretly Canadian in the US, and on Rough Trade in Europe. It is Stevens' third studio album and features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Michigan.
The album is the first in Stevens' fifty states project, a planned series of fifty albums to encompass all fifty U.S. states. Stevens only released two state albums before admitting the project was a "promotional gimmick".[1] The other album was Illinois (based on the U.S. state of Illinois), which was released in 2005.
The album was recorded and produced entirely by Stevens, using relatively cheap equipment for a market release. All of the tracks were recorded using 2 Shure SM57s and an AKG C1000, running through a Roland VS880EX,[2] at a sampling rate of 32 kHz (lower than the rates typically used in recording). Michigan was produced in Pro Tools,[2] which Stevens has also used for his following albums.[3]
The instrumentation was recorded in various locations: a home in Petoskey, Michigan; Buxton School in Williamstown, Massachusetts; the N. J. Rec. Room in Clarksboro, New Jersey; and throughout Brooklyn, including Stevens' apartment and those of his friends and St. Paul's Church.
A 20th-anniversary re-release was released on June 13, 2023.[4]
Album art features original hand-paintings by Martha Stewart Living crafts editor Laura Normandin.
The two-disc vinyl edition of Michigan contains an inscription within the run-off groove of each LP side:
Michigan received acclaim from critics. Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork described the album as "a beautiful, sprawling homage" to the state, noting its "lush production", but criticizing the excessive length of some of the album's tracks. In December 2003, American webzine Somewhere Cold voted Michigan Album of the Year on their 2003 Somewhere Cold Awards Hall of Fame list.[5] A year later, in December 2004, Somewhere Cold voted Michigan Vinyl of the Year on their 2004 Somewhere Cold Awards Hall of Fame list.
Upon the album's tenth anniversary, Stereogums Chris DeVille stated: "[Stevens's] widescreen love letter to his home state was such a momentous leap forward... Sufjan has produced a wealth of fascinating, deeply affecting (and sometimes deeply affected) music over the years... Nowadays, aggressive guitar bands like Coliseum are considered punk or metal because indie rock is the kind of genre where neoclassical whiz kid Nico Muhly contributes string arrangements to seemingly every major record, where Régine Chassagne passionately rocks the accordion, where Bon Iver channels Richard Marx unironically. Michigan’s flurry of glockenspiels, oboes, trombones, and, yes, banjos had a lot to do with that."[6]
By 2005, it had sold 27,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[7]
The song "Redford" was the inspiration for the name of the protagonist of The Roots' 2011 album Undun, who used the song as the opening to a four-part instrumental movement at the end of the album.[8]
The vinyl release also includes alternate arrangements of "Vito's Ordination Song" and "Romulus".
The European re-release of the album in 2004 also contains the bonus tracks "Marching Band" and "Pickerel Lake".