Indie-folk singer Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine presented their upcoming album, A Beginner’s Mind, to the world today. According to music publication website Pitchfork, the album will drop on September 24th via Stevens’ label Asthmatic Kitty and is available for preorder here. Check out the album cover and tracklist below.
Stevens has been very active these past years. He dropped his eighth full-length album, The Ascension, in 2020 and then his massive collection Convocations. The latter consists of five short ambient albums: Meditations, Lamentations, Revelations, Celebrations and Incantations.
Along with their album announcement, the duo also dropped two new songs, “Reach Out,” which is accompanied by a video, and “Olympus” (audio only). Check out both songs below.
“Reach Out”:
The video starts with a voice-over of two German speakers reciting a part of the lyrics, “Reach Out/ Reach Out to someone/ I would rather be a flower than the ocean/ I would rather be devoured than be broken,” while a home video of two dogs is playing. The two dogs will stay the main characters in the sweet video. The video turns a little trippy right in the middle but stays very soothing and the two dogs are just enjoying themselves while going for walks and playing with their owners. The song itself is very soft and comforting as well. Generally, the video and the song match each other pretty well.
“Olympus”:
Another soft and soothing song by the duo. The soft rhythm and angelic vocals feel lullaby-like.
A Beginner’s Mind Tracklist:
1. Reach Out
2. Lady Macbeth in Chains
3. Back to Oz
4. The Pillar of Souls
5. You Give Death a Bad Name
6. Beginner’s Mind
7. Olympus
8. Murder and Crime
9. (This Is) The Thing
10. It’s Your Own Body and Mind
11. Lost in the World
12. Fictional California
Photo credit: Sharon Alagna
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