Song of the Week: Sufjan Stevens Wants to Be Run Over on “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”
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The post Song of the Week: Sufjan Stevens Wants to Be Run Over on “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” appeared first on Consequence.
Song of the Week delves into the fresh songs we just can’t get out of our heads. Find these tracks and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist, and for our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Sufjan Stevens returns with a spellbinding new track, “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”
Sure, we all want to be loved. It’s a common side effect of our human condition, a catalyst for both bliss and carnage. Like many songwriters, Sufjan Stevens has studied consuming love and the crushing isolation without it. But on his new track, “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?,” a spellbinding offering from his forthcoming album Javelin, the songwriter has reached an urgent impasse. He wonders if that consuming, weightless feeling will ever truly arrive, and if so, when?
“Chase away my heart and heartache/ Run me over, throw me over, cast me out,” Stevens sings over a sparse string arrangement that recalls his early work. He requests that his body be burned and pushed off “into the void at last,” and asks to be washed, anointed with “that golden blade.” Stevens is no longer interested in the hope of love blossoming like flowers; he’d rather it flatten him in a stampede.
Stevens expands the scope of the song quickly, incorporating new voices, wandering instruments, and an emotionally charged climax. There’s a clear exchange of pleasure and pain throughout the song, with his masochistic requests contrasting the open-hearted instrumentation.
It all blends perfectly with the song’s touching music video, directed by regular Stevens collaborator Stephen Halker. Throughout vast, winding landscapes, we’re given kaleidoscopic images of people in all stages of life, of color collages and cars, of families and children and dogs and drag queens, and of Stevens’ own Javelin album cover. As the song picks up in energy, the presentation of these images expand accordingly, eventually turning into a dizzying array of colors, shapes, and faces.
It’s a wonderful combination of Sufjan Stevens at his most intimate and his most widescreen — the soft glory from Seven Swans combined with the courageous candor of The Age of Adz. Few songwriters are capable of depicting this existential crossroads with such pointed liberation, with such a strong, evocative vocabulary, with so much despair and ecstasy all at once. Sufjan Stevens makes it feel like love should — effortless.
— Paolo Ragusa
Associate Editor
Honorable Mentions
Jamila Woods – “Good News”
Thriving at the intersection of music and poetry, Jamila Woods is back with “Good News,” a dreamy and meditative track. It’s from here that Woods pulls the name of her upcoming album, Water Made Us: “The good news is we were happy once / The good news is water always runs back where it came from/ The good news is water made us.” “Good News” is appropriately organic in feel, and Woods drifts through the track, breezy and unbothered, leaving us to trail happily in her wake. — M. Siroky
Jenn Champion – “Jessica”
A tender ode to the people we lose when we are young, “Jessica” is a brutal, thoughtful reflection on continuing on after others are gone. With this new single, Jenn Champion digs into the tricky question of how to keep living when people we love are taken too soon, particularly those who succumb to addiction; there’s frustration, longing, care, and sadness baked into every moment of this song, and it’s all underscored by a desire to go back change the past. — M. Siroky
Noah Kahan & Lizzy McAlpine – “Call Your Mom”
What happens when two artists known for relatability and introspection come together? In the case of Noah Kahan and Lizzy McAlpine, it feels like a team-up that just makes sense, and their studio version of Kahan’s “Call Your Mom” (which originally appeared as a solo track on his 2023 album) is finally available on streaming after the two debuted it onstage at one of Kahan’s Los Angeles shows. Fascinatingly enough, turning the song into a duet gives it a more hopeful sheen; what was once a monologue here becomes conversational, opening up the narrative to a place of possibility. — M. Siroky
Smut – “Y Signal”
Chicago rockers Smut have shared a couple bonus tracks from the deluxe version of their excellent 2022 LP, How the Light Felt. “Y Signal” is the more active of the pair, displaying Smut’s penchant for blissful sonics and moments of shining clarity. Vocalist Tay Roebuck may begin the song by proclaiming she “has a tendency to shut up/ When things get tough,” but throughout “Y Signal,” it’s clear that when she does decide to speak up, she sounds truly radiant. Come for the lush synths that kick off the song, stay for the moments where the band ascends to a dreamy, power pop peak. — P. Ragusa
Yumi Zouma – “KPR”
New Zealanders Yumi Zouma have returned with “KPR,” a lovely new single that channels the slacker malaise of ’90s rock. The wandering guitar line that guides the verses, though baked into a thick, hazy atmosphere, is immensely satisfying; the shared vocals between Christie Simpson and Josh Burgess strike a balance between an intimate and collective feel. But when the music falls away for the final verse and Simpson bathes in an almost shocking air of gentle silence, the power of their songwriting reveals itself: “Thinking of you as I fumble to change the song,” she sings in an almost passive way, the pressure point activated, the band’s dreamy aura enlarging in focus. — P. Ragusa
The Ivy – “Good Faith”
According to The Ivy, their new song “Good Faith” was written and partially recorded in a storage container in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Such a claustrophobic, industrial creative environment usually results in a more constricted, minimal sound; and yet, the duo sounds radiant and inspired. Rather than lean heavily into their distanced, dreamy impulses, The Ivy are delightfully direct and passionately active on “Good Faith,” once again proving that their sweet indie pop sound can transcend even the most limited environments. — P. Ragusa
Song of the Week Single Artwork:
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Song of the Week: Sufjan Stevens Wants to Be Run Over on “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”
Paolo Ragusa and Consequence Staff
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