Some albums start off with a bang. Sufjan Stevens’ 10th album, Javelin, begins with a mournful sendoff. Wistfulness sets in almost immediately on “Goodbye Evergreen,” and the waves of loss and grief continue throughout.

The album arrived shortly after fans received the heavy news of Stevens’ bout with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, as well as the passing of his life partner Evans Richardson (which occurred in April of 2023). For long-time listeners, these details are significant on a human level, but his personal life is far from the only lens that serves Javelin’s material. Over his career, Stevens has shown his brilliance by shaping his own difficult emotions into art that provides more-universal guidance through those feelings.

Javelin isn’t any one mood, though. It also revisits memories of joyful times with the straightforward lyrics of “My Little Red Fox,” and “Running Start.” Like a groundswell of emotional support, small choir of femme vocalists bring these genuine reflections to life. It’s a comforting entrance into the unknown world of what’s left and what happens next after a permanent, untimely ending.

Stevens reflects on conflict during the album’s title track, and “So You Are Tired,” when love doesn’t feel so new, and certain actions start to feel out of place. “S**t Talk,” with incredible guitar work courtesy of Bryce Dessner of the National, ruminates on things left unsaid or undone, and seeks to not hold grudges, or leave anger to linger. The moments of the unknown yearning and longing are delivered in “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” – arguably one of Stevens’ most emotionally affecting songs in a catalog loaded with them. “Genuflecting Ghost” is steeped in tribute and memory, standing as a testament to those one has lost.

Throughout, Stevens moves through emotions and memories with an astute awareness, backed by arrangements that twinkle with each strum of guitar strings. The songs swell slowly to emotional climaxes, as if each one is a proper welcome or farewell to each lingering thought. Sonically, Javelin has lots of reminders along the way of what has made listening to every release in his discography a wonder-filled experience.

Borrowing a line from author Flannery O’Connor, Javelin reminds the listener gently, “everything that rises must converge.” And reverberations of his past work converge beautifully here. Direct and earnest as ever, Javelin evokes the intimacy of Seven Swans, Carrie & Lowell, and the multi-volumed Convocations. Stevens is able to pull the listener into different worlds here.  However, the synth work echoes the electronic maximalism exercised on The Age of Adz and The Ascension, and helps certain songs reach their emotional crescendos without overpowering the album’s intent. 

Javelin provides a listener with the best of each stage of Sufjan Stevens’ evolution as a singer/songwriter. Even in the midst of great personal struggle, it has him operating at the peak of his artistic powers.