Sufjan Stevens, The BQE - Music Review | h Magazine's hmonthly.com

Sufjan Stevens, The BQE - Music Review

Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by Administrator in Music

Everyone has something to expect from a new Sufjan release—especially when it’s the soundtrack to a documentary he directed about NYC’s infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. In many ways, writing a cinematic suite about this really frustrating expanse of urban highway seems like a great idea. In practice, not so much. Although the soothing music may make it easier to drive across the damn highway in rush-hour traffic, there’s nothing in this orchestral soundtrack that someone, whether it be Sufjan or a previous composer, hasn’t done before, and it doesn’t really fit Stevens’ previously established style.

The BQE sounds like Sufjan Stevens whitewashed by Debussy, Gershwin, Wagner, and a strange burst of electronic let-down, but it’s so devoid of anything the artist is known and enjoyed for that it may as well be a well-written classical soundtrack by an unknown. While there are glimpses of Sufjan’s personality in the cadence of the horns and wind instruments, there’s no tie-back to the innovative, creative songwriter that has made some of the spookiest, cheesiest, and loveliest orchestral indie-pop of today. Perhaps it needs vocals, perhaps the Super 8 documentary needs to be screening while you listen, but this soundtrack feels lackluster and empty and falls below what one would expect from Sufjan.

Good for: Narcolepsy, Super 8, driving in rush hour, waking up at a party.

Bad for: A flat tire, the promise of the 50 states records, bullies that are obsessed with urinals.

–Lauren Piper

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