Carrie & Lowell is deeply personal. It is a collection of childhood memories, reflections and recollections of a time now passed. Sufjan Stevens’s mother, Carrie, died of stomach cancer in 2012 – a troubled woman, she was absent for most of his life. The album explores Stevens’s complex feelings following her death, and remembers the three summers he spent with his mother, and stepfather Lowell, when he was young. The album isn’t a blame-placing exercise for the singer-songwriter, he doesn’t resent his mother. Instead, he has composed songs that embody his ambivalence, and capture the complex mixture of love and hurt, longing and forgiveness. Although it talks of experienced emotions and autobiographical stories, the record has a universal effect which allows the listener to discover what the record means for them.
The instrumentals are stripped back with Stevens’s words and his voice are foregrounded. A guitar and a piano provide a sedate backdrop to his hushed, whispering tones. Album opener ‘Death with Dignity’ establishes the hauntingly beautiful nature the rest of the record will embrace. Uneasiness is begot by the stark honesty of lyrics like “I forgive you, mother I can hear you/ And I long to be near you/ But every road leads to an end” juxtaposed with serene, flickering music.
The strings of ‘Drawn to the Blood’ and ‘No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross’ are quickly and barely plucked. They are the most self-reflective of the songs and arguably the most poignant. The album sustains an atmosphere throughout, but it becomes most overwhelming in ‘Fourth of July’ – the song is lingers on the boarders of catharsis, but never allows the impending, building sound to release, a perfect antidote to lyrics that constantly remind us everything must come to an end.
Carrie & Lowell is the most accomplished release of Stevens’s to date. It was motivated by pain, but its success lies in its simplicity, its honesty, and its gorgeous melodies. His musical experience shows, and it has been harnessed into a subtle, thought-provoking release. His personal experience shows too, and no amount of description here can convey the compellingly beautiful masterpiece the artist has turned this experience in to.
