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Javelin

by Sufjan Stevens

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    140g black vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve and full color wide spine jacket. Comes with a 48-page book of original art and essays by Sufjan.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Javelin via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $27 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD is housed in a full color wide spine wallet. Comes with a 48-page book of original art and essays by Sufjan.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Javelin via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Bag

    The Javelin tote is printed on Enviro-Tote's XL Flat Tote, made on 15oz natural cotton and printed using water-based inks.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Javelin T-Shirt
    T-Shirt/Shirt

    This Javelin T-Shirt is proudly printed on Soft Goods Natural Heavyweight Tees: 9oz, 100% cotton garments made in Detroit, MI. The shirts are hand screen-printed using water-based inks.

    Sold Out

  • Javelin Sweatshirt
    Sweater/Hoodie

    This Javelin Sweatshirt is proudly printed on Soft Goods Natural Crewnecks: 9oz, 100% cotton garments made in Detroit, MI. The shirts are hand screen-printed using a combination of water-based and puff inks, designed to create a 3D effect. The puff ink will raise the "Javelin" text off the shirt and into the third dimension!

    Sold Out

  • Seaweed Ocean Blast AKR LP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    140g “Seaweed Ocean Blast” vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve and full color wide spine jacket. Comes with a 48-page book of original art and essays by Sufjan.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Javelin via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Indie Exclusive Lemonade LP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    140g Lemonade vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve and full color wide spine jacket. Comes with a 48-page book of original art and essays by Sufjan.

    All records will ship out within one week of order.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Javelin via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

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So you are tired of us So rest your head Turning back fourteen years Of what I did and said So you are breathing disaster I did what I was told But I was a man born invisible Was it something I said Or some kind of joke? So you are tired as the sun Are you with or without a friend? Bring me back everything Caught in your shield Let everything else descend So you are seething with laughter Was it really all just a joke? I was a man indivisible When everything else was broke So you are tired of even my kiss So go back to your den Throwing out everything Left in your field When there was nothing Left to defend So you are dreaming of after Was it really all just for fun? I was the man still in love with you When I already knew it was done So you are tired of me So rest your head Turning back all that We had in our life While I return to death
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Shit Talk 08:31
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about

Over the course of his career, Sufjan Stevens has blurred distinctions between the major and the minor, between the details that color our existence and the big events that frame our lives. He has turned historical footnotes of States into kaleidoscopic pop, and rendered the immeasurable grief of loss with intimacy and grace.

His new album 'Javelin'—Sufjan’s first solo album of songs since 2020’s The Ascension and his first in full solo singer-songwriter mode since 2015’s Carrie & Lowell—bridges all these approaches. Sufjan uses the quietness of a solitary confession to ask universal questions in songs we can share communally.

Where The Ascension, lauded by The New York Times as “a cry of despair and prayer for redemption,” used ornate but urgent electronics to square up to its moment, 'Javelin' begins more like a self-portrait, detailed yet plain. Yet whether listened to individually or as an album, these 10 songs become something much bigger, the entire experience of Sufjan’s 25-year career expressed in four-minute bursts. Choral, orchestral, and electric wonder: it all shows in 'Javelin', all of it animating these songs as full spectacles. In each song we hear the vulnerability and candor of quiet starts, then Sufjan raising the stakes.

At times, 'Javelin' has the feel of a big team album production—but it is decidedly not: almost every sound here is the result of Sufjan at home, building by himself what sometimes feels like a testament to classic ’70s Los Angeles studio recording sessions. There are indispensable contributions from a close circle of friends; the harmonies of five singers who afford 'Javelin' so much frisson: adrienne maree brown, Hannah Cohen, Pauline Delassus, Megan Lui, and Nedelle Torrisi. Bryce Dessner plays acoustic and electric guitar on “Shit Talk.” And, of course, Neil Young wrote the tender and mystic closer, “There’s a World.”

And speaking of the world: there is a permeable sense of world-building imbued in every corner of 'Javelin', especially in the 48-page book of art and essays that accompanies the album. With a series of meticulous collages, cut-up catalog fantasies, puff-paint word clouds, and iterative color fields, Sufjan builds order from seeming chaos and vice versa. And toward the middle of it all are 10 short essays by Sufjan, another window into the process that informed 'Javelin'.

On 'Javelin', Sufjan returns as we may know him best, offering vulnerable reflections on love and relationships, so that in listening we may see ourselves more fully.

credits

released October 6, 2023

adrienne maree brown sings on “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?“ “Everything That Rises,“ “Genuflecting Ghost,“ “My Red Little Fox,“ “So You Are Tired,“ and “Javelin (To Have And To Hold).“

Nedelle Torrisi sings on “A Running Start.“

Pauline Delassus sings on “Shit Talk.“

Bryce Dessner plays acoustic and electric guitars on “Shit Talk.“

Megan Lui and Hannah Cohen sing on “Goodbye Evergreen,“ "A Running Start," “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?“ “Everything That Rises,“ “My Red Little Fox,“ “So You Are Tired“ “Javelin (To Have And To Hold),“ “Shit Talk,“ and “There’s A World.“

Sufjan Stevens performs everything else.

This album was recorded, engineered, arranged, produced and mixed by Sufjan Stevens.

Mastered by Heba Kadry, NYC.
Vinyl mastering by Josh Bonati.

All original artwork, collage, painting, photography, typography, layout and design by Sufjan Stevens.

Thanks to: Adrienne, Nedelle, Pauline, Megan, Hannah, Bryce, Evans, Lisa, Lowell, John, Tom, Robert, Mark, Jane, Nick, Stephanie, Heba, Josh, Neil Young and Jesus.

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about

Sufjan Stevens New York, New York

Sufjan Stevens is a singer-songwriter living in New York City.

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