Hello, everyone. Today I’m reviewing the newest album from Sujfan Stevens, Javelin.

It’s been nearly a month and a half since this album came out, and you might be wondering why I’m getting around to reviewing it so late. And, well, there were a bunch of other albums I wanted to review, too, but I was always planning on listening to this ever since I found out about it.

This album has been getting MASSIVE, MASSIVE amounts of critical acclaim, and by that I mean you could argue it’s the most critically acclaimed album of 2023 so far—it’s the kind of album you pretty much instantly know is going to go down as a classic some day. And it’s going to be a tricky album for me to review, because it’s dedicated to Sufjan’s late partner Evans Richardson, who passed away earlier this year. And the album also comes not long after Sufjan was diagnosed with Guillian-Barre Syndrome. And before I get into sharing my feelings on the album, I really hope Sufjan is doing well. No one deserves to go through what he’s gone through this year.

About the album, I wasn’t prepared for an easy listen at all, and there’s a part of me that feels like I shouldn’t even be reviewing this and giving it a rating considering everything Sufjan’s gone through … it might just be better for me to listen to it without reviewing it. But considering just how much critical acclaim this is getting, it also felt kind of awkward for me to not review it. And I want to follow my own rules and give the album a rating, although we’ll get to that later.

So, I gave this album multiple listens. And in a year when so many extremely critically acclaimed albums just haven’t really clicked for me all that much, do I at least love this album?

Well, this whole review is made a lot more difficult by the fact that I don’t love this album … and I kind of hate to say it considering what Sufjan’s gone through this year, especially as the loss of his partner and his diagnosis seem to have probably inspired some of this album’s lyrics.

But at the end of the day, I’m not going to pretend that I love this album when in reality I don’t … I do respect it a lot, and I can tell there’s a ton of emotion here, but if I’m being honest it’s just not really clicking for me.

So, where do I even start with this album? I mean, it kind of feels wrong for me to nitpick about production or melodies or instrumentation or anything like that … again, this kind of doesn’t feel like an album that should be reviewed.

Well, this isn’t going to be one of my usual reviews. Because I’m not going to really do all my usual nitpicking—really, I’m not going to say all that much about this album. I gave this album multiple listens and tried to find out if I was missing something, and … well, maybe I am, but I don’t think it’s something I’m going to find by listening to the album more.

This album just isn’t for me. And I guess the more stripped back instrumentation is probably to give this a more raw, emotional feeling, and … yeah, I get it. I guess that’s why this has been getting such a massive amount of critical acclaim. Or at least that’s part of the reason … and, well, I don’t want to be insensitive or anything, and I’m not denying how much emotion there is here, and I’m also not denying the fact that there are a ton of people who genuinely love this album … but to be honest, I can’t help but feel like if this weren’t made by Sufjan Stevens it wouldn’t be getting nearly as much acclaim. And you can deny it all you want, and maybe you’d even be right … but I doubt it.

And not only that, but if I had a much larger fanbase than I do, I could pretty much guarantee you there would be people in the comments telling me this isn’t the kind of album I should be reviewing unless the review is positive … and if you think I should just keep my thoughts on this to myself I can understand that—I don’t agree with it, as I feel like as long as you’re respectful you can review whatever album you want, but I at least get that argument … but a lot of the people who would make that argument are also probably going online and posting about how ‘bland and boring’ Ed Sheeran’s album, –, is. And hey, if you think that album is bland and boring that’s fine … I mean, I don’t agree with you, but we can agree to disagree there.

I guess what I’m saying is there’s certain artists whose music it’s considered ‘okay’ to review negatively even if it’s a super emotional listen about some very heavy, personal subject matters. And like I said, I think it’s okay to review pretty much any album, if not any album. But it seems like for a lot of people it really depends who the album is by.

At this point I feel like I’m not even talking about the album anymore … and yeah, I know I could have made this a mini review, but that felt even more wrong than giving it this review. I mean, I considered it, and it wouldn’t really have been wrong for me to do that, but it kind of felt wrong.

But back to what I was talking about, if this album was made by Ed Sheeran, I can all but guarantee you it wouldn’t be getting nearly as much critical acclaim.

But this post isn’t about Ed Sheeran. It’s about this album by Sufjan Stevens which is a very raw, emotional album which I do absolutely recommend listening to, although there’s a good chance you’ve already heard it. And at the same time, the album’s not really clicking for me. I guess looking beyond the emotion that’s here, the compositions just didn’t grab my attention all that much, nor did the vocal melodies. And as much emotion as there is here, it just doesn’t resonate with me emotionally, and that’s a me thing.

So, overall, I highly recommend this album if you haven’t heard it yet. It might not be an easy listen, but maybe you’ll get a lot more out of it than I did.

And I really hope Sufjan is doing well. Again, no one deserves to go through what he’s had to go through this year.

When it comes to giving this album a rating … yeah, I understand why some people wouldn’t want me to rate this album, but I’m going to follow my own rule and give it a rating … and as always, I rate albums based on how much or how little I personally like them. So, for me, it’s a 6/10, but that’s just because the album didn’t really do a whole lot for me personally. Again, that’s a me thing.

Yes, I know my opinion here is controversial, and I really wanted to give this a fair chance and try to see if it would resonate with me as much as it is for so many others, but it’s just not really resonating with me.

But feel free to let me know in the comments what you thought of this album; I’m very curious to hear.

And with that, I’ll be back with more reviews soon, and as always, thanks for reading!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6/10
Favourite Tracks: “Genuflecting Ghost”, “So You Are Tired”, “Javelin (To Have And To Hold)”
Least Favourite Track: “There’s A World”