Michigan or Illinois?
When Sufjan Stevens released his 5th album, Illinois (Come On Feel The) in 2005, it was two years after his critically acclaimed 3rd album, Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State. It was reported at the time that Sufjan — whose prolific output and consistently inspired songwriting had elevated him to top five artists’ status in my brain’s need to rank such things — would be releasing 48 more albums, each focused on a different north American state.
This concept excited me to no end. I can’t remember exactly why, other than his ambition seemed admirable and if the following 48 albums came anywhere near as brilliant as Michigan and Illinois, then I had the rest of my adult life to get to listen to fantastic new music. I hadn’t really done the math to figure out that I would be 86 by the time the last state album would be released if Sufjan kept to a one-per-year schedule. The chances I would have lived to hear them all were about 50/50 at best.
Apparently, this insane, massive musical project was a joke, or not meant to be taken seriously, and so there have been no subsequent state albums in Sufjan’s musical oeuvre. Though Stevens’ has been no less ambitious over the years, even releasing a 7 hour, 49-song instrumental elegy for his late father (Convocations – I won’t bother including a link) in 2021. I have not heard any of it, and the likelihood of spending more than an hour on it at any point is quite low, especially after reading numerable reviews calling it “unlistenable.”
That said, I do admire Sufjan’s ability to follow his muse and he usually has something important/relatable/complex/profound to say, both in words and composition.
But I won’t lie and say I wasn’t a bit disappointed that my home state of California was never given the Sufjan Stevens treatment. I still hold out hope that he one day might revisit his state project and at least add a few more volumes to this catalog.
Another artist who attempted to write music about the states of North America was They Might Be Giants’ John Linnell. Though he never completed his project either, Linnell at least was more realistic in his goals: one song per state as opposed to Stevens’ one-album per state plan (or fake plan, as it were).
Linnell’s first foray away from the famous TMBG duo with the other John (Flansburgh), came in 1999 in the form of State Songs, a song-cycle covering 16 different American states. I don’t know if Linnell had intended to write tunes for the other 34, and simply got caught up with TMBG music, or if 16 state songs was the plan all along; but what is clear to me, is that the chances of him returning to this project, even 22 plus years later, and completing it before I reach my 80s (and as Linnell is 7 years my senior, he would likely be in his 90s) is more realistic.
I feel like this album, State Songs, never really got the attention/promotion/notice that it deserved. Listening to it again today, after twenty years, it holds up well. If you are a fan of They Might Be Giants and their accordion-heavy, witty, pop tunes, you will certainly like State Songs. No one can capture world history in song better than TMBG, as evidenced in classics such as “Istanbul (not Constantinople)” and “The Mesopotamians.” So Linnell doing so with 16 US States is right in his wheelhouse.
As everything is streamable these days, I highly suggest that if you haven’t heard State Songs, to go give it a chance right now. Or if not right now, than when you have some free time, preferably soon.
Now is not the time to rush, or make overly ambitious plans.
Fuzzys Warbles 
Thanks, good job.
Thanks and good job.