“Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens

"Chicago" sits at the heart of Illinois, Sufjan Stevens' 2005 concept album, released on Asthmatic Kitty, and it's the song that turns a record about a state into something like a hymn. Stevens wrote it, produced it and recorded it himself, then stacked it high: violins from Julianne Carney and Rob Moose, Marla Hansen on viola, Maria Bella Jeffers on cello, and a choir that lifts the chorus toward the rafters.

The story is half his own, a young man on a road trip, full of youthful ideals, and the arrangement swells like a car picking up speed on the interstate. It became one of his most loved songs and the one he usually closes his shows with. He's never stopped tinkering, either: there are five versions of it, several collected on The Avalanche.

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