A Chronological Tracklisting of Sufjan Stevens' Carrie & Lowell

Note: This is the second of a three part series further exploring Sufjan Stevens' 2015 album Carrie & Lowell. Part 1 can be found here: The Sufjan Stevens Narrative Spectrum: A Visual Guide. Part 3 can be found here: The Three Musical Victories on Sufjan's Carrie & Lowell. For links to other articles on Sufjan's music and Carrie & Lowell in particular please see the end of this article.



As I have tearfully listened to Sufjan Steven's Carrie & Lowell in several concentrated waves over the course of 2015 (no seriously) the album has failed to make sense to me as a single cohesive narrative. 

Reflektor: A Listening Guide

For those of you reading along with my series on Arcade Fire here is a brief outline/listening guide to their 2013 album Reflektor, which turns 1 year old next month. 

Let's get right to it.

The album has a basic subject/narrative undergirding each song:
We all live in the "Reflective Age", an age of passive reflection. Some of us have succumbed underneath the oppressive weight of this age and some of us have overcome it, living as rebels and revolutionaries and outsiders within it, forever fighting against it. For more on the concept of the "Reflective Age" please see this article.