Artist: Sufjan StevensAlbum:

All Delighted PeopleLabel: Asthmatic KittyRelease Date: Last FridayRating (Skip, Stream, or Buy): You can stream it for free over at bandcamp, or buy for $5. I’d stick with the former.I really, truly want to like All Delighted People more than I actually do. (I also hate being a musical apologist, so bear with me here.) I was super excited when the EP appeared online last week: Sufjan Stevens’ last album (that is, the last album he created with all original material, not remixes or Christmas songs) was the instrumentally huge and lyrically rich Illinois in 2005. Then–after five years of waiting–Stevens just posts a new, free-to-stream EP to bandcamp with pretty much no warning. Listening to All Delighted People, though, I felt letdown. The title track (also the opening track, and the song the EP is built around) is 11 minutes long, and Steven’s bandcamp page describes it as “a dramatic homage to the Apocalypse, existential ennui, and Paul Simon’s ‘Sounds of Silence.'” It’s an accurate description; the song is definitely experimental, focusing on tone much the way a symphony would and using distortion like an instrument. There’s something about “All Delighted People,” though, that is unlike Stevens other material: it feels messy and unfocused. There are some lovely parts, like Stevens’ simple yet smart lyrics (“Do you love me a lot?/ Do you love me from the top of your heart?”) and vocal harmonies, but there’s just too much going on here. Even after hearing the song a dozen times, I still find “All Delighted People” overwhelming. It’s more noisy than it is orchestral. Sitting through all 11 minutes means tolerating at least a handful of different, almost unrelated movements, often transitioning by distortion and instruments playing loudly all at once.The second version of “All Delighted People” on the EP, which Stevens has termed the “Classic Rock Version” (the album was built around two recording of the same song), is more manageable. It’s 8 minutes long, starting with a quiet banjo moving into slow drums, horns, and a choir–the instruments and voices give each other room to breathe. There’s some experimenting here too–a crazy guitar solo and some fun with a synthesizer around 6:30 in–but this version is a more of a song than simply an experiment.Of course, there’s more to All Delighted People than the title track(s): “Enchanting Ghost” is delicate with charming lyrics: “If it troubles you to breathe/Wait a moment; I could change the scenery.” “From the Mouth of Gabriel” is a beautifully strange combination of harmonies, an outer-space-sounding synthesizer, and tinkling keyboards. Much like the title track, there’s a lot going on here–it changes tempo and style at least three times–but it’s only four minutes long, and makes Stevens’ unique and sweet voice the focal point, letting the instrumentals fall away at the most emotional moments to give the vocals space. “From the Mouth of Gabriel” is listenable, hummable, and the best song on the EP. It has the same effect that “Chicago,” a orchestral pop song backed by the Illinoisemaker Choir, had on Illinois. Yes, “Chicago” was a sprawling track, with instrumental layer upon layer, but it’s still a pop song, palatable enough to appear in Little Miss Sunshine and American Idol. These are the kind of songs Stevens does best: when he controls his experiment, instead of letting it overpower him and overwhelm his music.