Sufjan Stevens at Panorama Fest 2016 - Saturday
photo by Amanda Hatfield

Somebody ranked all 293 Sufjan Stevens songs

While he hasn’t followed Michigan and Illinois with albums for the other 48 states like many hoped, Sufjan Stevens‘ musical output since his 1999 debut album A Sun Came has been quite prolific, comprising eight full length albums, a bunch of EPs, a few compilations, and a lot of Christmas songs. Ranking all of those songs from worst to best would be quite the challenge (especially the Christmas songs), but at least one enterprising fan, Peyton Thomas, was up to the task, and posted “All 293 Sufjan Stevens Songs, Ranked” to their blog. It includes “every officially released song which credits Sufjan Stevens as a primary artist. It excludes live recordings, remixes, demos, and covers. This is a real tragedy, because man’s done some great covers, but I had to draw a line somewhere.”

2005’s Illnois and 2015’s Carrie & Lowell vie for most songs in the top ten with three each; two songs from Age of Adz and one each from Michigan and Seven Swans also make that cut. See the top twenty below, and read the whole list here.

20. “Concerning the UFO Landing Near Highland, Illinois”
19. “Vesuvius”
18. “All of Me Wants All of You”
17. “The Mistress Witch from McClure (Or The Mind That Knows Itself)”
16. “Sister Winter”
15. “The Only Thing”
14. “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”
13. “The Dress Looks Nice On You”
12. “John My Beloved”
11. “Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)”
10. “Blue Bucket of Gold”
9. “To Be Alone With You”
8. “Should Have Known Better”
7. “For The Widows in Paradise, For The Fatherless in Ypsilanti”
6. “Fourth of July”
5. “Futile Devices”
4. “Casimir Pulaski Day”
3. “Impossible Soul”
2. “Go! Chicago! Go! Yeah!”
1. “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!”

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