By: Lain Patton ’26
“The Age of Adz” is Sufjan Stevens’ sixth album and was released on Oct. 12, 2010. This 11 track album is inspired by the schizophrenic artist Royal Robertson, whose art is used for the cover of the album. Robertson was a self-proclaimed prophet from Baldwin, Louisiana and had multiple visions about God, aliens from space and the end of days. Robertson identified himself as “Libra Patriarch Prophet Lord Archbishop Apostle Visionary Mystic Psychic Saint Royal Robertson.”
Stevens’ interest in Robertson began after he recorded music for a friend’s documentary about Robertson. This opened up a new world to Stevens; he felt a bizarre connection to Robertson and started to transcribe the text found in Robertson’s artwork, which would later be found in the lyrics of his songs.
The sound used for this album was nothing like people had heard from Stevens before; unlike the delicate vocals, plunked banjo and emotional melodies found in his prior album “Illinois,” “The Age of Adz” was experimental and heavy on glitchy soundscapes.
Before working on “The Age of Adz,” Stevens had a project called the Fifty States Project where he was working to create an album for each state in America. He later explained that he was not seriously dedicated to creating 50 state albums and left the project with only albums for Michigan and Illinois.
The themes found in “The Age of Adz” are much more personal and, as Stevens explained in interviews, this album helped him work through his health issues as he suffered from a severe viral infection that attacked his nervous system. The main theme of this album is love, with some overlaps of spirituality, with Stevens singing about a lover and a divine power.
The first track of this album is “Futile Devices.” This track gained popularity after being featured in the 2017 film “Call Me by Your Name.” The song follows a similar style to his past albums and talks about the intimate and platonic love Stevens feels towards a male “friend.” Stevens has openly talked about his struggles leaving behind his extremely religious upbringing, which can be seen in his music through this album’s many lyrics about spirituality and internalized homophobia.
Another track from this album to highlight is my personal favorite, “I Want to Be Well.” This track was a way for Stevens to face the unidentified viral infection he battled throughout the process of creating “The Age of Adz.” In an interview with Exclaim! Stevens explained the disease: “I had this hyper-adrenaline and was in chronic pain. I had to go and see neurologists and physical therapists and do all of these tests. The nervous system, the brain and spinal cord are so mysterious, profound and beyond our understanding. When you’re not well and your body has these traumatic responses to illness, it takes so long to recover from that and have your body restore itself. It took months and months and months. It was really bizarre.”
With Stevens’ physical battles, his connection to Royal Robertson grew. Overall, “The Age of Adz” is a beautiful piece of art that faces the challenges of love, death and mortality, as well as the search for a divine power. To get the full experience of this album, I recommend putting on a pair of noise-canceling headphones and laying on the floor of your bedroom, listening to the album from start to finish with no interruptions.