The year of the dog

The mp3 blogs root heavily themselves on hyperbole, you may have noticed the way thousands of mp3 blogs had Sufjan Stevens on their year end lists and he was easily the most overhyped artist of 2005, but you have to admit it, this boy has talent.
Sufjan's sound has clearly been more influenced by people like Steve Reich rather than by folk heroes like Nick Drake or John Fahey (although he did covered a song by Fahey on a tribute record called "I am the resurrection") and I feel he owes much of his success to this influence that gives his folkie music a certain worldly quality to his sound.
Back in 2002 Sufjan released a completely electronical album based on the chinese horoscope entitled "enjoy your rabbit" on which you can hear clearly the Reich influence I was writing about. Year of the dog features some sort of vocals by Stevens (he rarely sings on this one) on top of some watery electronics, it's actually one of my favorite tracks on the release (along with "year of the ox").
I'm sorry for succumbing to the hyperbole (cause I'm sure you'll see this certain song on many mp3 blogs by the end of the year). I'll see you back on January 2nd. Have fun.

Sufjan Stevens - year of the dog

Image: "the master bedroom" by Andrew Wyeth.