Sufjan Stevens built Illinois as a portrait of a state, and it plays like one. Across 23 tracks and 77 minutes, he moves through history, politics, geography and folklore, stitching together fragments of song, spoken word and silence into something that feels less like a pop album and more like a scrapbook with a voice. It is ambitious, uneven, and occasionally exhausting, but it also contains some of the best music Stevens has ever made.
The Tracks That Work
The record’s high points cluster around its middle and back half. Here is how they rank:
- Chicago (6:05) — the centerpiece, a sprawling, gospel-inflected meditation that carries the weight of the whole project.
- Casimir Pulaski Day (5:54) — a quiet, mournful ballad about Polish-American identity, one of the most emotionally direct songs Stevens has recorded.
- The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders (7:03) — a two-part suite that stretches from frontier mythology to a plea for playfulness, anchored by a great vocal performance.
- The Seer’s Tower (3:54) — a tense, atmospheric track that sets up the record’s occult undercurrent.
- Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (6:46) — the opening statement, a raucous, carnival-like invocation that sets the tone for everything that follows.
These five tracks justify the entire experiment. They are the moments where Stevens’ ambition matches his execution, and they make the lesser material feel worthwhile.
The Middle Stretch
The album’s early and middle sections are where the cracks show. The opening track, “Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois,” is a strange, comic sketch that doesn’t quite land. “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” (3:20) is a grim, piano-led dirge about the serial killer, but it feels more like a stunt than a song. “Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!” (3:04) is a wry, jazzy number that works as a palate cleanser, while “One Last ‘Whoo-Hoo!’ for the Pullman” (0:06) is a mere blip.
The track list compresses a lot of ground in a short space. The table below shows how the runtime breaks down across the record’s three major movements.
| Section | Tracks | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Opening Statement | 1–5 | ~22 min |
| Middle Stretch | 6–12 | ~28 min |
| Back Half | 13–23 | ~27 min |
The second movement, anchored by “Chicago,” is where the record finds its stride. “Casimir Pulaski Day” and “The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders” sit back-to-back as the emotional peak, followed by the eerie “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!” (5:23) and the manic, title-track homage “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!” (5:10).
The final stretch is where the record loses momentum. “Out of Egypt, Into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt From My Sandals as I Run” (4:22) is a loose, celebratory closer, but the shorter tracks that precede it — “A Conjunction of Drones,” “In This Temple,” “Let’s Hear That String Part Again” — feel like filler.
The Verdict
Illinois is a flawed but essential work. Its highs are truly great, and its lows are mostly tolerable. The record asks a lot of its listener, but it rewards patience.
It is a portrait of a state that refuses to be summed up, and Stevens’ refusal to settle for a single genre or mood makes it a singular achievement.
- Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois2:09
- The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, “I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!”2:15
- Come On! Feel the Illinoise! Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream6:46
- John Wayne Gacy, Jr.3:20
- Jacksonville5:25
- A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons0:48
- Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!3:04
- One Last “Whoo‐Hoo!” for the Pullman0:06
- Chicago6:05
- Casimir Pulaski Day5:54
- To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament1:41
- The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts6:17
- Prairie Fire That Wanders About2:11
- A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze0:20
- The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!5:23
- They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!5:10
- Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell0:40
- In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth0:35
- The Seer’s Tower3:54
- The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders Part I: The Great Frontier Part II: Come to Me Only With Playthings Now7:03
- Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few0:47
- Out of Egypt, Into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt From My Sandals as I Run4:22
- The Ava Lanche3:14
