The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens

The Ascension, Sufjan Stevens' eighth studio album, arrived on September 25, 2020 through Asthmatic Kitty, the label he co-founded with his stepfather, and it plugs straight into electropop: gleaming synths, programmed beats, big pop shapes. He had gone electronic once before, on The Age of Adz, but the unlikely guiding light this time was Ariana Grande, whose 2018 song "Thank U, Next" was chief among the influences he drew on.

Stevens often plays a good share of the instruments on his records himself, and for years he has used them to wrestle with religion and spirituality; with a title like this one, he clearly isn't finished. "Video Game" is the track where the pop ambitions come through clearest.

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