Song of the Week (Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens)

This week's song comes from Sufjan Stevens, an amazing musician. I first heard about him when his album "Illinois" came out. It was the second of a very ambitious plan to release an album themed for each of the 50 states. His first album in the series was Michigan. Since the release of "Illinois" there have been hints of the release of another state, perhaps New Jersey, but recently Sufjan has all but said that the idea was a gimmick from the beginning and not something he really intends to follow through on. Nevertheless, both albums have given us some hauntingly fantastic music. He has either provided windows to his very soul and made sure they were wiped squeaky clean or has done a very good job of fooling us into believing the stories behind these songs are true and personal.

I chose "Casimir Pulaski Day" because of the emotion involved. It's a story about he and a childhood love who is diagnosed with cancer. Sufjan Stevens often includes spirituality in his music but I think he tries to make it a point not to use it as an avenue of evangelism for or against his beliefs. In this song, though, you can see some of the raw emotion that every Christian must face when dealing with the death of a loved one.