Sufjan Stevens Scientologist Church of Scientology

Are you ready to visit The Natural State? Far away from the BQE, Sufjan Stevens has announced Arkansas as the third state in his Fifty States Project and he’s releasing the new album Raconteurs-style next week! More surprisingly, Soof accredits his discovery of Scientology late last year for helping him complete his new musical project. Although Soof has previously expressed disinterest in publicly discussing his faith and his publicist has requested that interviewers avoid the topic, the Illinoise-maker offered the following statement on spirituality and Arkansas:

“The single greatest thing that studying Scientology has done for me is that it’s helped me become less restricted to create life and art as I want to, without being thrown off from my objectives. Despite misconceptions, Scientology is open to people of all faiths and I still regard myself as a Christian. Through my studies of Scientology, however, I’ve been enabled to write more music, become quicker in the composing process, and able to intuitively access more of the musical abilities that I possess. One of the big successes I’ve experienced was completing Arkansas. The new album was not only completed in record time for me, it exemplifies how I have learned to handle and remove my own self-imposed barriers and restraints. This freedom has been hard-won and I anticipate that you’ll hear great rewards. This is life through Scientology. This is Arkansas.”

Arkansas is expected to be available through iTunes one week from today, with vinyl and CD versions to follow shortly. However, two tracks (”The Lord God Bird” and “Retrieve The Lady Baxter! Ready Her For Battle!”) have leaked ahead of its release and sound musically/thematically familiar. The first track is a hymn to the ivory-billed woodpecker recently rediscovered in a small farming town and the latter is an instrumental ode to a cannon that rests at the oldest surviving state capitol west of the Mississippi River. Hypeful knows Soof declared rock dead, but still hopes the new disc has some “In The Words Of The Governor” moments on it. Check out the new tracks below and have a happy April Fools’ Day!

MP3s:
Sufjan Stevens - “The Lord God Bird”
Sufjan Stevens - “Retrieve The Lady Baxter! Ready Her For Battle!”

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