Sufjan Stevens - "You Are The Rake"
A guitar chord is plucked and allowed to decay almost fully before another takes its place. The simplicity of the guitar playing is matched by Stevens’ direct declarative lyrical approach. At 1:12 banjo begins to emanate from the sparsely timed chords, rolling outwards, pushing Stevens to sing a denser, louder part, fleshed out by backing vocals.
Though the the song’s title would suggest a connection with autumn, “You Are a Rake” sounds more like a clear winter’s day (guitar and vocals perspicuous like ice) with a light midday snowfall (the delicately placed banjo notes).
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One of a good number of power pop gems from A.C. Newman’s solo debut, The Slow Wonder, one gets the sense from “Miracle Drug” that Newman is a careful pop auteur with tremendous control of his craft. No synth bleep or clean guitar crunch, rousing snare/bass-drum combo or vocal flourish is out of place.
(This is my first two sentence review, I think. Three sentences now. Hmm, an infinity problem? Feels right.)