Sufjan Stevens Enlists Bryce Dessner, Covers Neil Young on New Album ‘Javelin’

Sufjan Stevens returns with his first solo album in three years as the singer-songwriter will release Javelin in October.

Ahead of Javelin’s October 6 release, Stevens has shared the LP’s first single, the atmospheric piano ballad “So You Are Tired”:

Stevens recorded Javelin — his first proper solo LP since 2020’s The Ascension, and touted as his first record in “singer-songwriter mode” since 2015’s acclaimed Carrie & Lowell — at his home studio with a small circle of collaborators, include a quintet of background singers — adrienne maree brown, Hannah Cohen, Pauline Delassus, Megan Lui and Nedelle Torrisi — plus the National’s Bryce Dessner, who contributes guitar to “Shit Talk.”

Stevens also penned nine of Javelin’s 10 tracks; the album’s closer is a cover of Neil Young’s Harvest classic “There’s a World.”

Javelin is available to preorder now ahead of its October 6 release via Asthmatic Kitty. Physical copies of the album are accompanied by a 48-page book of art and essays all created by Stevens, including “a series of meticulous collages, cut-up catalog fantasies, puff-paint word clouds, and iterative color fields.” The book also boasts 10 short essays penned by Stevens.

Javelin Track List
1. “Goodbye Evergreen”
2. “A Running Start”
3. “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”
4. “Everything That Rises”
5. “Genuflecting Ghost”
6. “My Red Little Fox”
7. “So You Are Tired”
8. “Javelin (To Have And To Hold)”
9. “Shit Talk”
10. “Thereʼs A World”