Sufjan Stevens has always been an achingly raw writer, bringing universal themes to life through metaphor in a way that reads like a story. With Javelin, his thirteenth studio album, he’s released an accompanying essay collection of ten meditations on love. 

My first love was an involuntary sound – the music of the spheres. . . 

– “10 essays on Love”

Gifting us with more insight on what he’s been contemplating, the titles of the essays piece together to read “My Love is A Weapon Thrown onto the Oblivion of Your Body,” in which the weapon might just be the Javelin in question. 

For the javelin I had not

Meant to throw right at you

  – “Javelin”

In a biblical battle story, Joshua points the Javelin to unleash God’s power on his enemies and then lowers it in peace, ending all destruction. To Stevens, a javelin symbolizes the contradictory powers of a broken heart with its capacity to hurt and heal .

Backdropped in his diagnosis of a rare neurological disorder and dedicated to his late partner Evans Richardson, Javelin resounds on heavier themes of loss, meaning, and mortality but with a sound that’s meant to uplift. Delicate melodies weave together the layered instrumentals and intimate vocals in what can only be described as orchestrated grief.

You know I love you

But everything heaven sent

Must burn out in the end

– “Goodbye Evergreen”

Starting with a farewell on“Goodbye Evergreen” and ending with “There’s a World,” the ordering of the tracks reflects the circular way that Stevens represents loss and love: everything will begin again. However, that is never enough to make meaning and ease the tribulations that have occurred.

Can you lift me up to a higher place? 

– “Everything that Rises”

Sufjan Stevens wants, so badly, to transcend the pain of the real world while acutely understanding that it is only human to live through it. In this process, we hurt and hurt others. As someone who has lived, loved, and lost, Stevens’ penultimate 8-minute track “Shit Talk” expresses the weariness of it all.

I will always love you (No, I don’t wanna fight at all)

– “Shit Talk”

Fighting and javelin as weaponry illustrate the battle against acceptance as we defend our hearts from loss. But in the end, Stevens accepts that the fight is over: we must lose before things can begin again. With this album, Sufjan Stevens gifts us a Javelin of our own— a beacon we can hold onto, pointing to what transcends time and space, a little something like love.

Featured Graphic from Bandcamp, Sufjan Stevens