Sufjan Stevens has released a new, acoustic song “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross,” from off of his forthcoming album “Carrie & Lowell,” due March 31. It may remind you why you liked or disliked Sufjan Stevens from the top; it may startle you with the lyricist he's become since.
Here's some light reading from Pitchfork's Stevens interview, on the Brooklyn-based songwriter's relationship to his late mother:
“In lieu of her death, I felt a desire to be with her, so I felt like abusing drugs and alcohol and fucking around a lot and becoming reckless and hazardous was my way of being intimate with her. But I quickly learned that you don't have to be incarcerated by suffering, and that, in spite of the dysfunctional nature of your family, you are an individual in full possession of your life. I came to realize that I wasn't possessed by her, or incarcerated by her mental illness. We blame our parents for a lot of shit, for better and for worse, but it's symbiotic. Parenthood is a profound sacrifice.”