Sufjan Stevens Javelin Ltd Ed Green Smoke Vinyl + Bonus CD- New/Sealed 2023

	£		40
	$		53

Sufjan Stevens ‎"Javelin"  Asthmatic Kitty Records ‎AKR171 Limited Edition (of 3000) Green Smoke Vinyl, LP, released as a Rough Trade exclusive, with a bonus CD of 5 unreleased songs and a 48-page book of original artwork and essays by Sufjan Stevens, on October 6th 2023. The LP is sealed and unplayed, so is in mint condition. Similarly, although it is not sealed, the CD is also unplayed and also in mint condition.
Sufjan Stevens (born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released ten solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nominations.
Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of "The Age of Adz" and the lo-fi folk of "Seven Swans" to the symphonic instrumentation of "Illinois" and Christmas-themed "Songs for Christmas". He employs various instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording. Stevens' music is also known for exploring various themes, particularly religion and spirituality. Stevens' tenth and most recent studio album, "Javelin", was released in October 2023.
On August 14, 2023, Stevens released the single "So You Are Tired", alongside an announcement for an album to be released in October 2023, titled "Javelin". The record is described as his first "singer-songwriter" album since 2015's "Carrie & Lowell". The album includes contributions from Adrienne Maree Brown, Hannah Cohen, Pauline Delassus, Megan Lui, and Nedelle Torrisi, as well as the National's Bryce Dessner, who contributed acoustic and electric guitar for the track "Shit Talk".
"Javelin" is Sufjan Stevens' tenth studio album.
"Javelin" received a score of 88 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on 21 critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Mojo's James McNair felt that Stevens is "still adept at spectacular, if somewhat opaque intimacy" and that "he enchants on 'My Red Little Fox', with its baroque recorders", while Uncut stated that "Javelin sounds like a proper Sufjan Stevens album, picking up the lyrical and sonic threads of Carrie & Lowell and 2010's The Age of Adz". The Skinny's Lucy Fitzgerald concluded that the album "gracefully distill[s] a profusion of self-loathing", calling it "a heartsick high. No one yearns like Sufjan Stevens".
Dana Poland of Slant Magazine wrote that "as always, expressions of spiritual and romantic devotion are skillfully intertwined in Stevens's lyrics" as he "bridg[es] the universal and the personal. Javelin doesn't just feel like a return to form—it feels resurgent". Pitchfork awarded the album their "Best New Music" distinction, with Sam Sodomsky writing that "the songwriting feels as raw and direct as ever" as Stevens "seems intent on understanding and being understood, with the purpose of exposing the common thread between his pet subjects: raising the endless questions that lead us to seek meaning in one another, and rejoicing in the euphoria of sometimes finding it".
In his review for AllMusic, Mark Deming concluded that "Javelin is an album about the need to be loved, agape and philia, and Stevens shows that he can write about both without trivializing or minimizing the importance of either. That's a commendable achievement in any creative medium, and the fact that he's done so while creating some of the best music of his life makes this essential listening." NME's Hannah Mylrea called it "a return to 'full singer-songwriter' Stevens, in a way, but by bringing together sonics from throughout his career and coupling it with frank and intimate lyricism, the gorgeous Javelin feels like a fresh take from the cult hero." Reviewing the album for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis described it as "a holisitic album, one that flows rather than fractures" and claimed it, "remarkable, too... carrying the listener along with it as it goes".
DIY's Ben Tipple wrote that "even on the occasion when the record veers dangerously close to twee (see the nursery rhyme-adjacent 'My Little Red Fox'), it still presents as a delicate insight back to the life of its creator" and it "takes a confident stride back into personal territory and certainly gives [Carrie & Lowell] a run for its money". Matthew Kim of The Line of Best Fit found that "Stevens goes back to what he does best – slightly electronic folk music paired with poetic lyricism – and he crafts yet another masterpiece, distinct from his previous catalogue but just as affecting".