Sufjan Stevens has returned with a new single entitled “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” A strikingly candid composition, the song arrives ahead of his forthcoming new album Javelin, which is due in full on October 6th. Stream the new single below.
Featuring backup vocals from fellow artists adrienne maree brown, Hannah Cohen, and Megan Lui, “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” is a confessional song, with an almost hymnal quality. Alluding to past sins and the “heartache and misery” he may have caused, Stevens pleads for a deliverance of sorts, seeking to find the answer to the titular question. As he reaches the chorus, he sings: “Will anybody ever love me?/ For good reasons, without grievance, not for sport/ Will anybody ever love me?/ In every season/ Pledge allegiance to my heart/ Pledge allegiance to my burning heart.”
Like Javelin’s previous single, “So You Are Tired,” the new song is a return to form for Stevens, tying in some of the sonic elements of his recent output while still conveying his inimitable skills as a singer-songwriter. The arrangement begins with intimate plucked strings, and eventually crescendos to a musical peak that captures the emotional intensity of the lyrics. The corresponding music video, directed by longtime Stevens collaborator Stephen Halker, matches this as well, with a colorful collage of images and symbols speaking to the song’s themes.
“This piece serves as an exploration into the intricate landscapes of the human psyche, akin to an open invitation to wander through the vast emotional domains of the mind,” Halker said of the song and its music video. “It illustrates the journey from surface-level facades to the profound yearning, vulnerabilities, and fixations that reside within the human heart.”
Continuing, Halker explained how the imagery of the video has a deeper meaning. “I was playing with this concept by putting these two-dimensional collaged icons into three-dimensional spaces that slowly become less and less tethered to the real world,” he said. “We can never truly Know each other, we all just live with our own somewhat flattened interpretations of those around us. The less we are deeply known, the less we can be deeply loved.” Watch the video below.
Javelin is due in full on October 6th via Stevens’ own Asthmatic Kitty Records. Pre-orders are ongoing. Stevens has also announced that there will be listening parties for the record, held in various cities around the world on either September 19th or October 3rd. Check out the poster of all the participating locations below, and read more details about the event on Stevens’ website.
Meanwhile, Stevens has been having a busy 2023. In March, it was announced that his seminal record, Illinois, had been adapted into a musical, which premiered over the summer. In May, Stevens shared a score to a ballet by Justin Peck entitled Reflections. In June, he shared 20th anniversary reissue editions of his album, Michigan.
