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Sep 13, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Courtesy of Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens is releasing a new album, Javelin, on October 6 via Asthmatic Kitty. Now he has shared its second single, “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?,” via a music video. Stephen Halker directed the video, which features artwork by Stevens. Watch it below.

Stevens has also announced some Javelin listening parties at independent record stores across North America on October 3. Below find those details.

“Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” features additional vocals from Adrienne Maree Brown, Hannah Cohen, and Megan Lui. In a press release, each of them offered a quote on working with Stevens.

Adrienne Maree Brown: “The first time I sang the song I started crying, I was so moved by the honesty of the questions. Sufjan is an impossibly brave and gifted writer.”

Hannah Cohen: “Being in the studio with Sufjan is like watching an alchemist at work. He creates a new realm, building our voices from a gentle choir, then morphing us into sirens raging from the sea.”

Megan Lui: “‘Will Anybody Ever Love Me?’ felt like a glimpse into Sufjan’s past records but spins into an epic collage of voices and instruments. His vision of melody and composition are astonishing and working with him and Hannah in the room was pure joy.”

Stephen Halker had this to add about directing the “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” video: “This piece serves as an exploration into the intricate landscapes of the human psyche, akin to an open invitation to wander through the vast emotional domains of the mind. It illustrates the journey from surface-level facades to the profound yearnings, vulnerabilities, and fixations that reside within the human heart.

“I was playing with this concept by putting these two dimensional collaged icons into three dimensional spaces that slowly become less and less tethered to the real world. We can never truly know each other, we all just live with our own somewhat flattened interpretations of those around us. The less we are deeply known, the less we can be deeply loved.

“Will anybody ever love me? I don’t know.”

Javelin is being billed as Stevens’ first full on singer/songwriter solo folk album since 2015’s acclaimed Carrie & Lowell. Previously Stevens shared the album’s first single, “So You Are Tired,” via a lyric video. “So You Are Tired” was one of our Songs of the Week.

In 2021, Stevens released the five-volume album Convocations, as well as A Beginner’s Mind, a collaborative album with Angelo De Augustine. Read our digital cover story interview with the duo about that album. In 2020 he put out The Ascension. Earlier this year, Stevens released Reflections, his score for the Justin Peck ballet of the same name that was performed by pianists Timo Andres and Conor Hanick.

Adrienne Maree Brown, Hannah Cohen, Pauline Delassus, Megan Lui, and Nedelle Torrisi all provide harmonies on many of Javelin’s songs. Bryce Dessner of The National plays acoustic and electric guitar on “Shit Talk.” Album closer “There’s a World” is a Neil Young cover. Stevens recorded the album himself at home, but a press release points out that Javelin still sometimes has a big sound and that it “pairs musical sweep with emotional breadth.”

A 48-page book of art and essays all created by Stevens accompanies the album. It includes “a series of meticulous collages, cut-up catalog fantasies, puff-paint word clouds, and iterative color fields. The 10 short essays—alternatively funny, tragic, poignant, obtuse, and specific—offer little glimpses into loves and losses that have shaped him, and, in turn, these songs.”

Javelin North American Listening Parties on October 3:

Philadelphia, PA @ Repo Records - 5pm
New York, NY @ Rough Trade NYC - 6pm
Atlanta, GA @ Criminal Records - 4pm
Chicago, IL @ Reckless Records, Milwaukee Ave. - 5pm
Chicago, IL @ Reckless Records, Belmont Ave. - 5pm
Nashville, TN @ Grimey’s - 4pm
Austin, TX @ Waterloo Records - 7pm
Toronto, ON @ Sonic Boom Records - 6pm
Vancouver, BC @ Neptoon Records - 5pm
Montreal, QC @ Le Vacarme - 5pm
Wilmington, NC @ The Fuzzy Needle Records and Books - 6pm
Charleston, SC @ J. Stark - 5pm
Chattanooga, TN @ Yellow Racket Records - 6:30pm
Toledo, OH @ Culture Clash - 6pm
Seattle, WA @ Easy Street Records - 6pm
Indianapolis, IN @ Luna Music - 6pm
Halifax, NS @ Obsolete Records - 2pm
Orlando, FL @ Park Ave CDs - 7pm

(All times are local time. Find a list of international listening parties on September 19 here.)

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