Bands like The War On Drugs, Spoon, and The National are still pumping out high-quality music that stands alongside their finest work. If it was up to Sufjan Stevens, though, those groups wouldn’t even exist anymore: On his list of “least favorite albums of 2021” (most entries in which aren’t actually anything even approximating albums), he asserts that bands should break up after a decade together.
In the post he shared on his website yesterday, he wrote, “Any band that is still together after 10 years—Please. Break up. Do your solo albums. Move on.” He gave that “album” a grade of F-.
Some other music-related entries on the list include, “Musicals—Please stop singing and dancing. F-,” and, “The 90s revival—Please. It was bad enough the first time around. F-.” He also wrote, “J Balvin—Black face. F-,” perhaps in reference to his recent “Afro-Latino Artist Of The Year” award. The only actual album included on the list is Adele’s 30, of which Stevens wrote, “Girl, please. We know you’re 33. It’s on your Wikipedia page. B+.”
It’s worth noting the whole post feels pretty tongue-in-cheek, so it’s likely he’s having fun by over-inflating some things he maybe halfheartedly believes or is just making some silly claims that aren’t rooted too deeply in reality.
Meanwhile, he also recently shared a list of his favorite 2021 albums, and again, he didn’t quite understand (or willfully ignored) the assignment, as his definition of “2021” is pretty loose. Instead, it would seem he’s referring to albums he heard in 2021, as his picks include Can’s 1973 album Future Days and Todd Rundgren’s A Wizard, A True Star from the same year. He did include Sam Evian’s Time To Melt, though, which actually was released this year.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.