Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

Illinois, the fifth studio album from Sufjan Stevens, was released on July 4, 2005 on Asthmatic Kitty, the label he co-founded with his stepfather, and it's the most gloriously overstuffed indie record of the year. It was the second stop on his planned tour of all fifty states after 2003's Michigan, a project he's since admitted was a joke, and every song circles back to the state's people, places and history, pulled from criminal, literary and historical records and stitched together with his own memories and his Christian faith.

Stevens recorded and produced it himself around New York City on low-fi gear, between late 2004 and early 2005, stacking up a small orchestra's worth of instruments into swooping, intricate arrangements that drew comparisons to Steve Reich, Neil Young and the Cure. "Chicago" is the soaring single that made his name, and "Casimir Pulaski Day" is hushed and devastating. Critics swooned, it topped Billboard's Heatseekers chart, and in 2023 it became a Broadway-bound musical, Illinoise, which won a Tony for its choreography.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.