I'm a Sufjan Stevens fan. Everyone is. I've been listening to his two recent 'all 50 states' project discs Michigan and Illinois for several months now and can't speak highly enough of them. If you don't own them, buy them now.
But somehow (because I live in Utah) I hadn't found his most critically acclaimed work, Seven Swans. Until today.
If I could, I would call Sufjan and stammer, "how...? so beautiful...! where did you? how could you possibly...?" and then hang up overwhelmed, but I don't have his number. I would kiss him on the mouth, but I don't know where his mouth lives. I do know that I owe him something, though I can't imagine what it could possibly be.
This disc leaves me with one sure thought, "I don't have an artistic bone in my body. I'm so grateful others do.
What happens when Lou Reed, Belle and Sebastian, and They Might Be Giants meet at a crossroads? 3 hours of The Magnetic Fields. 3 discs containing 69 love songs that you can listen to more than once. The question is whether or not this $35 set is a novelty or a wonder. Certainly 2004's I feels more than a bit tighter and less thrown together, but not necessarily better. I'm thinking there's more to 69 Love Songs than sideshow, and I've listened to it twice in two days... 
