Alternative/folk artist Sufjan Stevens released his 10th album “Javelin” last week. After the release, Sufjan posted on Instagram, saying that the album is dedicated to his “beloved partner and best friend, Evans Richardson, who passed away in April.” “Javelin” works through Sufjan’s grief and love for Evans, in a series of songs that combine his familiar folk and acoustic sounds, with electronic ambient vibrations.

Sufjan has long battled grief, and throughout his musical career has incorporated these strong emotions into his songwriting. In “Convocations,” released in 2021, Stevens grapples with his father’s death. “Javelin” works similarly through his love and longing for his partner. The album opens with “Evergreen,” a song in which listeners are enveloped in Sufjan’s world of grief and immense love for his passed partner. The lines “Goodbye, Evergreen/You know I love you/But everything heaven-sent/Must burn out in the end,” immediately reveal Sufjan’s devastation. The third song on the 42-minute-long album, “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” questions what love means to him and his fears about finding love someday. 

The most trending song on the album, entitled “So You Are Tired” with around 4,500,000 listens, has a familiar sound to Sufjan’s past work. The piano and vocal harmonies combine to create a beautiful harmonic sound. 

The album concludes with “There’s A World” which opens with a poignant line, “There’s a world you’re living in/No one else has your part.” In this song, Stevens grapples with his reality, a world without his partner. No one can replace the person he has lost. His emotions and love are beautifully bookended by this last song. After ten songs the listener is left with a piece of Steven’s grief and connections to their own experiences of losing love.