My first time hearing Sufjan Stevens, admittedly, was off this album. It was before it came out in stores, when they only offered it on the Ashmatic Kitty site. My friend bought it and sent me the song Chicago over MSN. I listened to it, and never looked back. Sufjan Stevens has been my favorite artist ever since.

While Michigan gave me more of a feeling of being home, and being loved, Illinoise does just the opposite. It throws me into a place i've never been before and lights off the fireworks right in my face. First we get rushed to Highland, IL, where there was UFO sighting, which Stevens uses as an analogy for the Second Coming of Christ. Then we get to The Black Hawk War, where Stevens orcheastrates the falling of a full civilization. And from there on, it just takes off. Come On Feel the Illinoise, exploring the city of Chicago, Carl Sandburg, expansion, Frank Lloyd Wright, and even the Ferris Wheel! Then into the heartbreaking ballad about a serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, who in the 1970's killed at least 20 or more young boys and hid them underneath his home in Illinoise. The song explores his problems, his major accident with a swingset hitting his head, and how just about anyone could be a murderer after John Wayne Gacy, for he himself was a respected member of society and a reportedly kind, fun man to talk to.

The whole album goes on like this, packed with history, and a little bits of fiction here and there. Harmonys, a wide array of instruments, and even just a banjo, acoustic guitar, and a trumpet can break a heart, as seen on Casimir Pulaski Day, about a dying woman and her lifelong friend, who is questioning why she is not being saved through prayer and his own love.

This album is undisputedly the best of 2005. It's beautiful, loud, proud, heartbreaking, heartwarming, fun, magical, spiritual, and all around amazing. Don't hesistate to feel the Illinoise!