Summer last year i moved to Saginaw, Michigan with my cousin Hector. After lots of bonfires with friends, fishing trips, cottage houses by the lake and seeing snow for the first time i came back to my hometown in San Juan, Puerto Rico late August this year and now i cant seem to get enough of this album by Sufjan Stevens, himself a Michigander. This album a tribute to Michigan, takes you through isolated rural country sides with frozen river banks and snow covered parks with it's slow minimalist sound from instruments like: banjo, acoustic guitar, piano, xylophones, vibraphones, glockenspiels, wood floutes, sleigh bells, tambourines accompanied by Stevens fragile voice.
"Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)" – 3:44
"All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!" – 4:33
"For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" – 3:57
"Say Yes! to M!ch!gan!" – 2:46
(The track title refers to a Michigan tourism slogan from the 1980s)
"The Upper Peninsula" – 3:23
"Tahquamenon Falls" – 2:18
"Holland" – 3:26
"Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!)" – 8:20
"Romulus" – 4:41
"Alanson, Crooked River" – 1:18
"Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie" – 2:52
"They Also Mourn Who Do Not Wear Black (For the Homeless in Muskegon)" – 6:21
"Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)" – 9:23