ONE OFF PRESSING. INDIE EXCLUSIVE. 2 X LP ON CLEAR VINYL IN TIP-ON GATEFOLD SLEEVE INCLUDES 16 PAGE BOOKLET OF ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY SUFJAN STEVENS "Groundbreaking - it plots a way forward from our apocalyptic present and not only petitions for unconditional love and change among us all, but it also represents a dramatic metamorphosis for the artist as well. - Acclaim (10/10) The incredible recent album and previous Record of The Month from Sufjan Stevens is, quite simply, a must-have for 2020. Stevens' world-weary state and resentment refracts kaleidoscopically across the 15 songs on The Ascension, totalling an hour and 20 minutes of music. Yes, just like isolation, it's long and exhaustive, yet it demands multiple, active listens and, ultimately, it unfolds beautifully and is well worth the effort. There's an endless well of potent ideas, modalities and critical interpretation lying beneath the album's complex layers. Stevens addresses love, death and drugs with a call to defy modern society's materialism, lies and idol worship.
“I’m speaking to you,” Stevens says. “You are the subject of this record. You, the listener. I think I’ve earned the right to be didactic and preachy. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and how many songs have I written about my own personal grievances [with] judgment against myself, self-deprecation, and sorrow? I was like, No, I don’t want to write another song about my dead mother. I want to write a song that is casting judgment against the world.”
It's an intimidating album and one we could have ever expected in 2020, but it is the one we deserve. Arguably, The Ascension is his most ambitious work to date, certainly his most ambitious. It very well might be the sign of a new era of Sufjan Stevens to come. | 
