The Age of Adz
A maximalist, glitch-ridden electronic odyssey that trades acoustic banjos for apocalyptic synthesizers, frantic drum machines, and towering orchestral arrangements.
A maximalist, glitch-ridden electronic odyssey that trades acoustic banjos for apocalyptic synthesizers, frantic drum machines, and towering orchestral arrangements.
Electronic departure
A wall of sputtering, neon synthesizers and frantic drum machines suddenly replaced the quiet woodwinds and gentle banjo plucks of the American Midwest. This record is a feverish, maximalist pivot born from physical illness and the apocalyptic, obsessive illustrations of outsider artist Royal Robertson. Instead of polite acoustic folk, you are plunged into a chaotic digital swamp where brass sections collide with glitchy, erratic beats. It feels like a brilliant mind short-circuiting in real time, trading historical narratives for raw, desperate love songs. It proved that a quiet storyteller could scream through machines and still break your heart.
The vocals lean far further into processed than the rest of the catalogue.
While some reviewers found the album's sprawling length and chaotic intensity somewhat exhausting, critics broadly admired its raw, vulnerable ambition. Ultimately, the record was welcomed as a complex and deeply rewarding departure that, despite dividing listeners who missed the artist's gentler folk style, offers a captivatingly honest experience for those willing to invest the time.
“This is an extravagant and undisciplined album that is nearly impossible to digest”
“Sounds for all the world like a Sufjan Stevens album – part pop, part performance art, part mad professor. How he makes them is irrelevant now. The man can do no wrong”Read review
“The Age of Adz is occasionally transfixing, but overall inconsistent”
“Stevens seems stuck between a rock and a hard place, trying to please the faithful while at the same time needing to stretch himself creatively”Read review
“When he calls off the artillery, The Age Of Adz can be stunning”Read review
“Unspools over a significantly greater amount of time - 75 minutes - than the material warrants”Read review
“This album is a sumptuous mix of lo-fi percussion, off-kilter beats and sweeping instrumentation that have re-invigorated Stevens’ sound”
“An audacious, eminently enjoyable offering from a singer whose deep reserves of curiosity and invention show little sign of dwindling”Read review
“The Age of Adz will divide not just audiences but individuals, making them itch for the comfort of Stevens’ banjo and unflustered, literary demeanor on the one hand, while making them thankful for his honesty and ambition on the other”
“Another long-form work that requires-- and rewards-- time and devotion”Read review
“The whole album is a gorgeous mess, and you’ll immediately want to be dragged through it all over again”
“One of the great, poetically inspiring burnout albums for our new time”Read review
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