Kitty Empire 

Sufjan Stevens: The Greatest Gift review – unreleased Carrie and Lowell gems

(Asthmatic Kitty)
  
  

Sufjan Stevens
Myth and memories… Sufjan Stevens. Photograph: PR Company Handout

This is a mixtape of demos, remixes and unreleased tracks dating from Sufjan Stevens’s magnificent 2015 album, Carrie and Lowell. The catnip for Stevens completists here consists of four previously unreleased outtakes – including Wallowa Lake Monster, a riveting song that weaves myth (monsters, feathered snakes, Charybdis), memories of his mother, and Stevens’s feather-light electronic backings. The other unreleased gem on The Greatest Gift is City of Roses, a sweet-sounding track full of dread. Nothing here feels like filler, however; not least two versions of Drawn to the Blood, one electronic and one fingerpicked.

Listen to Carrie and Lowell – iPhone demo by Sufjan Stevens.
 

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