Sufjan Stevens Abandons 50-State-Albums Concept

Sufjan Stevens told Paste in a recent interview that his concept of making an album for all 50 states to follow Illinois was actually a joke. "I think maybe I took it too seriously," he explains. "I started to feel like I was becoming a cliché of myself."

Four years after the release of Illinois -- which Paste just deemed the best album of the decade -- Stevens says that "I no longer really have faith in the album anymore. I no longer have faith in the song."

 

Maybe Stevens will release everything online like Billy Corgan plans to do, via the Smashing Pumpkins 44-song album Teargarden by Kaleidyscope ... unless that was a joke, too. [Pitchfork]