Carrie & Lowell

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Carrie & Lowell
A weathered photograph of a man and woman with the album title and artist written on the image in white
Studio album by Sufjan Stevens
Released March 31, 2015 (2015-03-31)
Recorded Mid-2014
Studio Stevens' office, Brooklyn, New York[1]
Flora Recording & Playback, Portland, Oregon
Blackwatch Studios, Norman, Oklahoma
April Base Studios, Fall Creek, Wisconsin
Pat Dillett's studio, Manhattan, New York
A hotel room in Klamath Falls, Oregon
Genre Indie folk
Length 43:35
Label Asthmatic Kitty
Producer Thomas Bartlett
Sufjan Stevens chronology
Silver & Gold
(2012)Silver & Gold2012		 Carrie & Lowell
(2015)
Singles from Carrie & Lowell
  1. "No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross"
    Released: February 16, 2015
  2. "Should Have Known Better"
    Released: March 11, 2015
  3. "Carrie & Lowell"
    Released: March 17, 2015

Carrie & Lowell is the seventh studio album by American musician Sufjan Stevens, released through Asthmatic Kitty on March 31, 2015.[2] Unlike Stevens's previous studio album, the electronic The Age of Adz, Carrie & Lowell is sparsely instrumental and marks a return to the performer's indie folk roots.[1] The album was given a one-week preview on NPR.[3]

The album was released to high critical acclaim, with many critics calling it Stevens' best.[4] Carrie & Lowell has gone on to be considered as one of the best albums of 2015.

Recording

The songs on the album were recorded in 2014 at Stevens' office in Dumbo, Brooklyn and Pat Dillett's studio in Midtown Manhattan. Some of the songs were also recorded in Oregon, at Portland's Flora Recording & Playback and on an iPhone in a Klamath Falls hotel room. A few songs were also tracked in Oklahoma, at Norman's Blackwatch Studios, and in Wisconsin, at Eau Claire's April Base Studios.[5][1][6] The songs were inspired by the 2012 death of his mother, Carrie, and the family trips they took to Oregon in Stevens' childhood.[7] Stevens' mother, who suffered from depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse, abandoned him when he was a year old. According to Stevens, recording the album helped him come to terms with her death and provide closure.[8] The album title also references his stepfather, Lowell, who helped co-found Stevens' record company Asthmatic Kitty.[1]

The album was produced by Thomas Bartlett, known as Doveman, a musician and friend of Stevens who had recently lost a brother to cancer. On Bartlett's production part, Stevens said, "Thomas took all these sketches and made sense of it all. He called me out on my bullshit. He said: 'These are your songs. This is your record.' He was ruthless."[9] In the same interview, on the emotions in the album's recording process, Stevens said:<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

"I was recording songs as a means of grieving, making sense of it. But the writing and recording wasn’t the salve I expected. I fell deeper and deeper into doubt and misery. It was a year of real darkness. In the past my work had a real reciprocity of resources – I would put something in and get something from it. But not this time."

Commercial performance

Carrie & Lowell debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 with 53,000 equivalent album units; it sold 51,000 copies in its first week,[10] with the remainder of its unit count reflecting the album's streaming activity and track sales.[11] The album also debuted at number 10 on the Canadian Albums Chart with sales of 4,400.[12] As of July 2015, Carrie & Lowell has sold 105,000 copies in the United States, with approximately 30% (32,000) of its total having been sold in the vinyl configuration.[13]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 90/100[14]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4/5 stars[15]
The A.V. Club A[16]
The Daily Telegraph 5/5 stars[17]
Entertainment Weekly A–[18]
The Guardian 5/5 stars[19]
NME 9/10[20]
Pitchfork Media 9.3/10[21]
Rolling Stone 4/5 stars[22]
Slant Magazine 4.5/5 stars[23]
Spin 9/10[24]

Carrie & Lowell received critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from music critics, the album has received an average score of 90, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 40 reviews.[14] Andrew Hannah of The 405 proclaimed that "Carrie & Lowell is just the latest in a long line of unimpeachable achievements." [25] In his review for Pitchfork Media, writer Brandon Stosuy wrote, "Sufjan Stevens' new album, Carrie & Lowell, is his best."[26] Stephen Carlick of Exclaim! called the record "a quietly triumphant return for Stevens, announced not by fireworks but by a series of small, elegant moments that reach for the heart."[27] UK retailer HMV named it the best album of 2015.

Accolades

Publication Accolade Year Rank
The A.V. Club The 15 Best Albums of 2015 2015
3[28]
The Guardian The 50 Best Albums of 2015 2015
2
Musica Neto The 100 Best Albums of 2015 2015
1[29]
NME NME'S Albums of the Year 2015 2015
24[30]
Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2015 2015
6[31]
Readers' Top 50 Albums 2015
2[32]
Rough Trade Albums of the Year 2015 2015
12[33]
Stereogum The 50 Best Albums of 2015 2015
5[34]
OOR Album of the Year 2015
1[35]

Track listing

CD

All songs written and composed by Sufjan Stevens. 

No. Title Length
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
Total length:
 43:35

Charts

Chart (2015) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[36] 11
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[37] 68
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[38] 10
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[39] 33
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[40] 6
French Albums (SNEP)[41] 50
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[42] 51
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[43] 27
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[44] 9
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[45] 30
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[46] 27
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[47] 29
UK Albums (OCC)[48] 6
US Billboard 200[49] 10

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Carrie & Lowell on Discogs
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Stevens, Sufjan Death with dignity: how music eases grief's deep ache The Guardian. September 6, 2015
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ "Australiancharts.com – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  37. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  38. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  39. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  40. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  41. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  42. ↑ "Officialcharts.de – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  43. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  44. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  45. ↑ "Spanishcharts.com – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  46. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  47. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  48. ↑ "Sufjan Stevens | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  49. ↑ "Sufjan Stevens – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Sufjan Stevens. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
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