Sufjan Stevens’s 2005 concept album about Illinois is indie folk, sure, but so much more: wonky time signatures, epic orchestral suites, vivid lyricism describing oft-forgotten figures in our state’s history, and iconically hokey cover art inviting listeners to “come on feel the Illinoise.” It’s a critical darling and fun for the whole family, especially if your family includes an Illinois history teacher. And if you’ve never driven down DuSable Lake Shore Drive at night blasting the anthemic earworm “Chicago,” I implore you to drop everything and do so now. I’ll wait.
The Artist
When he wrote the album, Stevens was working in publishing in New York and doing music on the side. It’s safe to say the LP — released in July 2005, when he was 30 — made music a full-time gig for him, though I’m sure the book world would be delighted to end his two-decade hiatus from the industry.
The Gimmick
Despite how its cover is styled, the album is not actually titled “Come On Feel the Illinoise” but rather simply Illinois. It is the second installment of Stevens’s Fifty States Project: his quest to write an album about every state in the country. The first was an ode to his home state, Michigan. Stevens later brushed off the 50 states goal as kind of a joke. “I have no qualms about admitting that was a promotional gimmick,” he told The Guardian in 2009. Stevens has yet to release another state-inspired epic. (He intended to put out a single on Rhode Island but never did.) How lucky are we that he ticked the Land of Lincoln off the list before losing steam?
The Deep Cuts
To say Stevens hit the books while writing Illinois is an understatement. The songs are chock-full of Prairie State history references, including the Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858; serial killer John Wayne Gacy; poet Carl Sandburg; the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition; Casimir Pulaski, the locally celebrated Polish-born American Revolution hero; and, my personal favorite, “A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons.” Were Stevens to release a 20th-anniversary addendum to Illinois in the form of bonus tracks, I hope he would include a banjo-forward retelling of the Great Cicadapocalypse, an epic full-choir backing for the Cubs’ World Series win, and an introspective crooner for Rahm Emanuel titled “A Pinkie, a Prom Night, a Presidential Chief of Staff.”
The Legacy
These days, Stevens’s lyrics center less on state histories and more on raising the question, “Is this about Jesus or gay sex?” The Fifty States Project may have died, but Illinois lives on somewhere unexpected: Broadway. The album inspired a Tony Award–winning musical titled Illinoise, focused on a group of hikers telling their life stories around a campfire. But perhaps more impressive than statuettes, Illinois has stood the test of Chicagoans Yapping About Chicago. When art is (a) good, (b) made expressly about Chicago, and (c) feels authentic to the city, Chicagoans will vow to sing its praises until the day Lake Michigan runs dry. Suffice it to say, Illinois has joined the likes of Ferris Bueller in this hallowed category. We’ll check in with you in 2042, The Bear.