Sufjan Stevens / Carrie & Lowell
Artist Sufjan Stevens
Album Title: Carrie & Lowell
Album Cover:
Primary Genre Alternative & Punk: Indie
Format CD
Released 03/31/2015
Label Asthmatic Kitty Records
Catalog No AKR099
Bar Code No 6 56605 60992 8
Packaging Cardboard Gatefold
Tracks
1. Death With Dignity (3:59)
2. Should Have Known Better (5:07)
3. All Of Me Wants All Of You (3:41)
4. Drawn To The Blood (3:18)
5. Eugene (2:26)
6. Fourth Of July (4:39)
7. The Only Thing (4:44)
8. Carrie & Lowell (3:14)
9. John My Beloved (5:04)
10. No Shade In The Shadow Of The Cross (2:40)
11. Blue Bucket Of Gold (4:43)
Date Acquired 04/10/2015
Personal Rating
Acquired from Amazon
Purchase Price 8.99

Web Links

All Music Guide Entry:
Discogs Entry:
MusicBrainz Entry:

Notes

Recorded variously at:
Flora, Portland, Oregon (engineered by Tucker Martine)
Black Watch, Norman, Oklahoma (engineered by Chad Copelin and Jarod Evans)
April Base, Eau Claire, Wisconsin (engineered by Brian Joseph)
Pat Dillet's studio somewhere midtown Manhattan
And at Sufjan's office in Dumbo, Brooklyn
Some tracks were also recorded on an iPhone in a hotel room in Klamath Falls, Oregon
All songs by Sufjan Stevens
© 2015 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
©&? Asthmatic Kitty Records P.O. Box 1282 Lander, WY 82520
Released in 4 panel mini-LP style gatefold package. Contains 8 pp. booklet with lyrics and credits.

foobar2000 1.3.6 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2015-04-10 19:37:18

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Analyzed: Sufjan Stevens / Carrie & Lowell
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DR         Peak         RMS     Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR10      -0.30 dB   -13.56 dB      4:00 01-Death with Dignity
DR8       -0.30 dB   -10.99 dB      5:08 02-Should Have Known Better
DR7       -0.30 dB   -10.61 dB      3:42 03-All of Me Wants All of You
DR10      -0.30 dB   -14.46 dB      3:18 04-Drawn to the Blood
DR12      -1.21 dB   -16.72 dB      2:27 05-Eugene
DR9       -0.30 dB   -11.14 dB      4:39 06-Fourth of July
DR8       -0.30 dB   -11.93 dB      4:44 07-The Only Thing
DR11      -0.30 dB   -13.05 dB      3:15 08-Carrie & Lowell
DR12      -0.30 dB   -14.54 dB      5:05 09-John My Beloved
DR10      -1.36 dB   -16.04 dB      2:41 10-No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross
DR9       -0.30 dB   -11.57 dB      4:44 11-Blue Bucket of Gold
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Number of tracks:  11
Official DR value: DR10

Samplerate:        44100 Hz
Channels:          2
Bits per sample:   16
Bitrate:           692 kbps
Codec:             FLAC
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Reviews
All Music Guide Review:

Review by Mark Deming
Nothing truly prepares anyone for the loss of a parent. No matter how aware one may be about the realities of disease and death, no matter what their attitude about their mother or father, experiencing the passing of the person who brought them into this world hits hard and deep, and the survivors are left to come to terms with their pain in their own ways. Sufjan Stevens is a songwriter and a musician, so it should come as no surprise that in the wake of the death of his mother Carrie in 2012, his grief took the form of a collection of songs. But 2015's Carrie & Lowell is not a simple homage to Stevens' mother and stepfather. Stevens had a difficult relationship with his mother that would defy a simple farewell; she left his father when Stevens was just a year old, and she was a random presence throughout much of his childhood. While there's deep and genuine love in Carrie & Lowell, there's also uncertainty, sadness, and brief but jagged bursts of anger; these songs speak of loss and heartache and the difficult push and pull of familial relationships, but they're also full of random memories, both pleasant and troubling, and they leap from reveries of family vacations faded by the passing of decades, to the immediate regrets of what was or wasn't said and done in the aftermath of death. Carrie & Lowell is about memory as much as mourning, and Stevens has drawn these songs in a purposefully elegant manner, with his introspection accompanied by beautiful but homespun melodies, and the arrangements and production only magnifying their dreamlike, whisper-quiet drift that strikes with an emotional force that a louder, more violent approach could not achieve. Carrie & Lowell is a heartfelt expression of love that is devoid of the slightest hint of sentimentality, and with these songs, Stevens strips his emotions bare and allows us all to be the audience for his anger, shame, and sense of loss as he pages through his memories of his family. Carrie & Lowell is the most harrowingly personal work Stevens has offered us to date; it also ranks with his most skillfully crafted albums despite its spartan approach, and it's a sometimes difficult but profoundly moving work. Stevens has offered us some fine albums in the past, but he's never made anything quite like Carrie & Lowell.
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