A Beginner’s Mind – Kate Karvelis

By: Kate Karvelis

Sufjan Stevens’ first came to my attention when he wrote the song Mystery of Love, for the critically acclaimed movie Call Me By Your Name.  I would consider myself a huge fan of the Folk genre, however I’ve never listened to any of Steven’s other work. On September 24th Sufjan Steven released A Beginner’s Mind as a collaboration album with Angelo De Augustine. This album was written under what I consider to be perfect conditions for album writing : the two artists went on a reclusive cabin retreat for a month,  in order to write A Beginner’s Mind. The duo would watch movies at night, and then write songs for the album in the morning. 

While having my listen through of the album, I discovered that the title track Beginner’s Mind, sounds strangely similar to that of We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel. The two songs share a similar chord progression and rhythm. While unconfirmed, I’d like to believe that this similarity is not a coincidence. 

The track, Olympus, feels like a hug to me. The soft repetition of “there’s no place like home” is extremely soothing, and I feel like I’m being wrapped up in a cozy hug. The song ends with the lyric “and it’s our very first kiss”, which I think is so sweet, and it broke me.

My favorite tracks from the album are Lady Macbeth in Chains and Back to Oz. The second track on the album: Lady Macbeth in Chains is about the film All about Eve. Lady Macbeth in Chains paints a picture about the character Margo Channing, and her struggles as an aging Broadway actress. Back to Oz is the most upbeat track on the album. This song references the movie Back to Oz. Sufjan and Augustine were fueled by their hate for said film, because it ruins everything about The Wizard of Oz. 

While this song was inspired by a movie that Stevens and Augustine did not like, I feel as if their hate for the movie fueled a wonderful track on this album. In the film Return to Oz, Oz is an entirely different place, and Dorothy has lost her childhood innocence. That was a huge inspiration for the song, as the song is written from Dorothy’s perspective, and is all about how she doesn’t want to lose her childhood, or what Oz is to her. 

On my first listen, Cimmerian Shade was my least favorite track. On my second listen however, it brought me to tears. I didn’t like the track at first as I felt like the last minute was out of place, and sounded uncomfortable, in a dark and twisted way. Nevertheless, on the second listen the uncomfortableness of the track is just so beautiful. The repeating of “I just want you to love me” and “I just want to love myself” with the off-putting instrumentals makes me feel the characters pain. It makes me feel like the character feels unlovable, with the instrumentals being a reveal of his inner-self. The character is dark and twisted, and seeks love from someone as well as himself. This would make sense, as this track is based upon Silence of The Lambs and the character Buffalo Bill.

I honestly give this album a 10 /10. In my opinion, it is a perfect fall album. A Beginner’s Mind makes me want to wear my Patagonia jacket , drink lots of chai tea and shop exclusively at Trader Joes; truly a perfect fall routine. This entire album brings out my true “granola girl side”. I love the folk genre and I heavily encourage listening to this album while going for a walk, getting homework done, or even meditating. I even love all the artwork that accompanied this album. The album cover is so fascinating to me, in all the best ways possible. For every single released, they created even more artwork, which was a collage of aspects from the movie that inspired the single. The one for Back to Oz/Fictional California is definitely my favorite. 

 A Beginner’s Mind is great as an introduction to the folk genre because a few of the songs are faster paced, and almost poppy. This helps new folk listeners and fans to be able to connect  even deeper to the genre.