Sufjan Stevens' Carrie & Lowell

by Joel Mayward

Upon the release of Sufjan Stevens' seventh studio album, Carrie & Lowell, two divergent groups found themselves as strange the LGBTQIA+ community and American evangelical Christians. Both were united in praise for Stevens' beautifully melancholic music.

Critically acclaimed as one of the best albums of 2015, the elegiac and intimate record about the death of Sufjan's estranged mother reflects the musician's own paradoxical posture-Carrie & Lowell is both sacred and profane, Christian and queer, traditional and progressive, despairing and hopeful.

Theologian and cultural critic Joel Mayward considers Carrie & Lowell as a mystical metamodern memento mori, Sufjan's symphonic (as opposed to systematic) approach to the questions of mortality, sexuality, and God. Fusing critical observations with personal narrative, Mayward examines the unique audience reception of Carrie & Lowell and the questions it in a world of division, how might Stevens' affecting music act as a bridge of love between seemingly irreconcilable communities? As Carrie & Lowell reminds us of the painful truth that “we're all gonna die,” perhaps it also offers a glimpse of transcendence and hope on this side of death.

Genres: Music

160 pages, Paperback

Published November 13, 2025

Reviews

[Joel Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably owe this book a longer write up, but it’s been a long day. My love for Carrie and Lowell is so intimate and dear to me, it’s something I don’t really c’discuss with most people. Reading this wonderful and nuanced exploration only increased my love for that album.

[Abraham Teuber]

I think writing about and understanding sufjan is a really difficult task because he so clearly says
exactly what he wants to say in his music. to even discuss sufjan outside the precisely constructed, complex bounds of his work can easily feel superfluous, like a form of engagement his work transcends. he is not a celebrity, artist, or musician so much as a saint. there is something really sacred about him.

this book is a really solid and insightful effort to parse carrie & lowell through queer studies, theology, and personal history. it is very well-researched and worth the read alone for how it elucidates the album’s many references and metaphors drawn from the geography and history of oregon. made me appreciate even more fully what an excellent and rigorous songwriter sufjan is. he allows every element of a song to exist so multidimensionally, serve so many purposes and interpretations, that they really demand biblical comparison.

this clashes, then, with the impulse to interpret carrie & lowell biographically. it’s impossible to avoid when taking on a project like this, but the rawness of the album requires a really delicate and sensitive interpreter. this is handled better in some chapters than others, but this author brings a really deep reverence to writing about sufjan that made it such a beautiful and meditative read.

this was the first 33 1/3 book I have read so I’m not that familiar with this format, but the blend of academic writing, memoir, and cultural criticism didn’t always work for me. there is a clear academic adherence to an overarching argument that can clash with its direct emotional appeals and makes some of the passages sound a bit rote, because they’re trying so clearly to prove rather than just describe. the disparate pieces feel a little slapped together and don’t allow this book to be more than the sum of its parts, but I would absolutely recommend it to any sufjan fan.

I hope this is the first of many books about him! it was also the most thoughtful gift I received for christmas this year and a really great way to spend the weird days between holidays.

[Grant Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read about the queer and Christian themes in Carrie and Lowell. It was held back by two major things:
1.Carrie and Lowell bring a near perfect work of art that speaks for itself
2.Sufjan Stevens being a private person so there's not much to uncover behind the scenes.

[Marcel Uljee · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Within this change of heart lies the eponymous confession of holistic yearning interspersed between each line: all of me wants all of you. Is Sufjan singing about his mother, a lover, or God? To answer this, we have to more directly consider the queer imagery which imbues Carrie & Lowell and, indeed, all of Sufjan Stevens's art.’ (p. 39)

[luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5! Maaayyyybe helpful for my thesis? But ultimately I love love love the repeated point that something (for example a Sufjan Stevens song) can be about (queer) erotic love, and also God, and also family.

[Conor Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great deep dive in the album and sufjan