New

Bit of a fib, that title, because today’s tune is by someone who has been around for years, and this single has been knocking around for a couple of months too.

It’s an artiste who I’ve never really “got”, but at the same time I’ve not invested much time in trying to “get” either. A cursory listen back in the early 2000s led me to decide he wasn’t really for me, although I did feel he might be a kindred spirit when he announced The Fifty States Project, where he intended to make an album for each American state. He gave up after two (Michigan and Illinois). Any other blogger out there who has dreamt up what they considered to be a brilliant idea for a series, but which subsequently peters out after you’ve posted the two songs you thought of at the same time as the idea, will also feel some empathy.

I’m talking about Sufjan Stevens of course, and this is from his current album The Ascension; I’ve not heard anything else from the record as yet, but this is most definitely not how I remember him sounding. This is much more electro-pop, and reminds me quite a lot of White Town’s 1997 smash Your Woman:

More soon.

All Other Music is Temporarily Suspended #5

Here’s the next batch of Prince cover-oddities.

First up, Sufjan Stevens, who for reasons best known to himself, decided to release this on one of his “Silver & Gold” Christmas albums. Go Figure.

Sufjan Stevens – Alphabet St.

And at the other end of the spectrum, originally released as an extra track on CD2 of their single “Come On”, which was lifted from their mostly acoustic “Stoned and Dethroned” album. But don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security; this is closer to how they sounded circa “Sidewalking”, in other words it is The Jesus & Mary Chain doing what The Jesus & Mary Chain do best: be noisy, sleazy and just a little bit glam, to a backdrop of a lot of feedback.

The Jesus & Mary Chain – Alphabet Street

And finally, as has become traditional in this mini-series, the original and greatest version:

Prince – Alphabet St.

More soon.