Detroit and its sprawling suburbs may have had a massive impact on pop history, from Motown and The Stooges to The White Stripes and Eminem. But the distant corners of Michigan State have, for the most part, been ignored by rock chroniclers. When you have a metropolis of crumbling palaces to the motor car, strafed by riots, poverty and non-specific urban blight, it seems a little unnecessary to go searching for inspiration beyond Detroit's city limits.
Nevertheless, to begin his projected series of albums about all 50 American states, Sufjan Stevens has done just that. Stevens, as you may have noticed, is one of the very best of the current fine crop of American singer-songwriters, having come to prominence earlier this year when Rough Trade released his heartbreakingly lovely "Seven Swans".
Far from an auspicious debut, "Seven Swans" is actually Stevens' fourth album. "Michigan" is his third, released in America to justified acclaim last year (and with two great bonus tracks on this version). More lavish than the hushed confessions of love and faith that make up "Seven Swans", "Michigan" combines those folk manners (Stevens has an intimate, tentative way of singing, and often accompanies himself with a banjo) with ornate, fractionally jazzy chamber pop in the vein of Stereolab or Jim O'Rourke.
It's a curious combination, but a strikingly successful one. While Stevens' grand project to write about each state may seem whimsical and academic, the reality of "Michigan" is uncommonly warm and sensitive. Wisely, he's started with his home state, which may explain the knowledge and compassion behind urban laments like "Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid)" (the run-down car town from which Michael Moore hails) and wintry wilderness hymns like "Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie". Whether Stevens could pull off something so compelling about Delaware remains to be seen.
But no matter: a beautiful labour of love, in which geography, sociology, nature study, history and personal memories are meticulously interwoven.
by John Mulvey